As Anna Gostamelsky shattered Israel's national
swimming record for the 100-meter freestyle on Sunday evening
in Beijing, once again demonstrating her incredible endurance,
I couldn't help thinking about another battle she has been
fighting, this one for more than six years, and to date
unsuccessfully: her bid to be recognized by the rabbinate as
Jewish.
Gostamelsky is one of thousands of immigrants
from the former Soviet Union who have been unable to convince
the rabbinate here that she is Jewish according to halakha
(Jewish religious law). As such, she has been denied the right
to be married in Israel. When she turned to the organization I
direct, ITIM: The Jewish Life Information Center, for help
following the Athens Olympic Games, she summed up her feelings
as follows: "In more than 150 countries in the world, not only
am I Jewish, I represent the Jewish people. Only in Israel do
people question my Jewishness."
Gostamelsky's
"problem" is that the paperwork she used to establish her
eligibility to come on aliyah comes from her paternal line,
simply because when she immigrated to Israel in the early
1990s those documents were more readily accessible. But the
rules for marrying in Israel are different than the
requirements for immigrating and the rabbinate will only
accept documentation from the maternal line. Although
Gostamelsky has significant evidence - primarily oral
testimonies - demonstrating that her mother was born Jewish,
the absence of the paperwork the rabbinate takes seriously (in
Anna's case, her grandmother's original birth certificate) has
thrown Gostamelsky's Jewishness into doubt. The rabbinate
refuses to accept these testimonies without the supporting
documentation.
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Last year more than 4,000 files were opened in
rabbinical courts in Israel by people wishing to establish
their Jewishness, primarily so they can marry here. Hundreds
of other immigrants have not even bothered opening files,
knowing that their documentation doesn't meet the bar of the
rabbinate, even though they know they are Jewish. And yet not
one Israeli politician or public servant has spoken out on
this issue. Gradually, thousands of legitimate Jews are slowly
being written out of the Jewish people.
The challenges
of proving Jewishness don't relate only to immigrants. ITIM,
an organization that helps Israelis navigate the rabbinate's
labyrinths, has helped hundreds of native Israeli families
confront the rabbinate on this issue after their children have
become engaged to children of immigrants.
Moreover,
the children of thousands of Israeli couples who choose for a
variety of reasons to marry outside of the rabbinate's
framework (in Cyprus for example) or who choose not to marry
at all, will, in the next generation, find themselves in the
awkward position of having to prove their Jewishness, despite
having grown up as full Jews. I estimate that at least 60
percent of Jewish Israeli families will have to go through
this process in the coming two decades.
The fact that
a member of Israel's national swimming team is forced to marry
outside the rabbinate is scandalous - especially since she
respects Jewish tradition and desperately sought a way to be
able to marry within the fold. But the issue is much bigger
than Anna Gostamelsky's personal story.
Rabbinical
courts insist on authentication of Jewishness because the
assumption that someone who claims he is a Jew is a Jew - a
principle that is, incidentally, codified in the Shulhan Arukh
(code of Jewish law) - has been challenged in recent years by
ultra-Orthodox poskim (halakhic authorities). These rabbis
claim that such an assumption can be made only so long as the
claimant is an observant Jew. However, in a society whose
members are secular Jews - "those who don't act Jewish," in
their words - no such claims hold any real credence.
Thus, just about anyone who seeks to get married in
Israel needs to prove his or her Jewish bona fides. Sometimes
this means bringing witnesses, but more often than not,
especially when those involved were not born in Israel, it
means providing documentation. ITIM has developed expertise in
helping individuals meet the rabbinic requirements, even
though the entire endeavor is deeply troubling.
As an
Orthodox rabbi, I care deeply about high standards of halakha.
At the same time, when suspicion and unjust behavior become
the calling cards of those authorities whose mission is to
preserve Jewish law, I feel it is important to speak out. As a
nation, we may and perhaps should agree on one definition of
Jewishness. But there ought to be room for multiple
expressions within that definition. And more important, the
level of proof demanded to meet that definition ought not to
be unreasonable.
Given the fragile and temporal state
of Israeli politics, it seems unrealistic to expect that the
rabbinical courts will be dismantled over this issue. However,
it is within our grasp to insist that those rabbinical judges
who are appointed understand that the Jewish people transcend
the Orthodox community. Moreover, it is important that both
secular and Orthodox Jews understand that they have the right
to demand that rabbinical court judges engage the issue of
Jewishness authentication. The status quo is untenable.
Jewishness authentication is an issue that relates to the
entire Jewish people, not merely to the Orthodox.
If
we don't begin to speak out soon, it won't only be one of our
Olympic swimmers who can't prove she's Jewish.
Rabbi
Seth (Shaul) Farber, Ph.D. is the founding director of ITIM
(www.itim.org.il) and the founding rabbi of Kehilat Netivot in
Ra'anana.
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