RBIS September 28, 1999: Can Israel find a Solution for the Friendly Foreign Invasion?

The population of Israel today includes a Jewish majority, the Arab Christian and Muslim communities and the Druse and Circassian communities. But there are three other significant and growing groups which have no defined communal status and which could be a time-bomb for our country in years to come.

They are the non-Jewish Russian immigrants, who are Israeli citizens, the foreign workers, who are not citizens, and the smaller group of transient Christian and other
spiritually-motivated non-Jews, also non-citizens. Israel also has accepted a small number of political refugees, such as Vietnamese boat people, Iranians and others, who, if they stay, usually receive citizenship.

Israel may not have the standard of living of America or Western Europe, but compared to much of Eastern Europe, Asia, Africa and Latin America it looks like paradise. The temptation to find any possible means to stay here is great. The means available include forged documents from countries of origin, real or fictitious marriages to Israelis and conversions of dubious value.

For years, when the rate of aliya was low, secularists demanded equal recognition of Conservative and Reform conversions and sometimes a "cultural" definition of Jewishness in order to dethrone the Torah-observant ("Orthodox") "monopoly" on personal status according to the status quo agreement.

The whole subject is a bone in the throat of everyone.

If the Reform and Conservative movements merely wanted recognition to be able to perform marriages, divorces and conversions in Israel, they possibly could have had it as separate denominations as did the Karaite, Samaritan and Protestant communities many years ago. The fact is that this is not sufficient for them. They also want to obligate other Jews like me to recognize their actions as affecting me as part of the Jewish people. As a Jew faithful to the Torah as transmitted from Moses at Sinai I cannot do that.

But perhaps there is a solution for those non-Jews who wish to have a spiritual connection to Israel and the Jewish people without the total commitment to the 613 commandments?

Today there is a growing realization even in secular circles that the standards for accepting immigrants must be rigorous. The nature of the solution must take into account the needs of Jewish tradition. At the time of the founding of the State of Israel, the ruling socialist coalition led by Ben-Gurion was positive to the degree of an article of faith that the Torah-observant community was a holdover from the past and would not long endure.

Both out of the need for support from traditional Jews abroad and the need for a strong consensus of national unity at home, concessions were made to the rabbinate and the religious community. These included the institution of kosher food and cessation of activity on Shabbat in the public sphere and most important to our concern here, application of halacha (Jewish religious law) as the standard for determining personal status. Personal status includes the areas of marriage, divorce and conversion.

As time went on, the religious community and its educational system became more established and more self-confident. After the Six-Day War the national-religious community became the spearhead of the settling of communities in Judea, Samaria and Gaza. The mantle of pioneering in Israel had passed from the non-observant ("secular") to the observant ("religious").

The massive defections to secularism predicted by Ben-Gurion and his cohorts failed to materialize. On the contrary, a significant number of Israeli Jews became more observant ("religious") than their parents, an event not seen in the Jewish world since the so-called Enlightenment two centuries before.

It is clear that in order to satisfy the conditions of the religious community and the rabbinate there can be no relaxation of the standards for conversion. Conversion is a religious ceremony involving change of status. The rabbis would simply refuse to implement any secular political and legal change in conversion which would violate halachic standards.

But what about a change in citizenship status without affecting the question of "who is a Jew?"

When a non-Jew comes to a rabbi or rabbinical court seeking to convert, it is a requirement that the candidate have pure motives. Conversions for the sake of marriage or material consideration are not acceptable, although sometimes after the fact they may be admitted. The Talmud states just for this reason that neither in the time of David and Solomon was there nor in the Messianic era to come will there be
acceptance of converts.

This does not mean totally sealed borders, however. There is a precedent in Jewish law for the institution of the "ger toshav", the resident alien. Although this status is not in effect under present conditions, it could be a guide to a way out of our present difficulty.

The Talmud states that in addition to conversion to Judaism, a non-Jew may be accepted as an official resident in Eretz Yisrael by officially accepting the seven Noahide Laws before a court of ordained judges.

Why can we not fully institute such a status today? First of all, the ordination of rabbis today is only a recognition of their competence to decide questions of Jewish law. True ordination was in a direct line from Moses with much more rigorous qualifications. This chain was broken during the Roman persecutions following the Bar-Kochba revolt in 135 C.E.

The other requirements are that the majority of the Jewish people must be living in Eretz Yisrael on their tribal lands and the institution of the Jubilee Year must be in force. These are virtually messianic-era qualifications.

Nonetheless, just as the Temple Institute promotes the study and preparation of artifacts and plans for the Temple and Jewish traditional jurisprudence is studied for its wisdom and inspiration for secular Israeli law, we can seek out some of the spirit of the law of "ger toshav", study it and see how far it can take us in dealing with the problem, which is not new.

Israel was always a very small nation among many with its particularity and need for preservation on one hand and a universal message to be brought to mankind on the other. Such a dichotomy goes clear back to the Bible. The restricted acceptance of conversions and the permission under rigorous conditions of the resident alien is in the spirit of this tension.

A non-Jewish presence in the Jewish polity was always to be limited to those who would not be inimical to its purpose and functioning. This would exclude adversaries to the Jewishness of the state as well as criminal or nationalist elements which would be a physical threat to its peace.

The Seven Noahide Laws (Sheva Mitzvot Bnai Noach) were until just a few years ago an esoteric and totally theoretical subject. In parallel a few Jews and a few Gentiles became inspired by these ideas. Today there are small Noahide communities scattered throughout the world and a growing cyber-community of Jews and non-Jews discussing these issues on the Internet. These Noahides are crying out for guidance in learning Torah and creating a lifestyle which is neither Christian nor Jewish, but based on the vision of the Written and Oral Torah for the non-Jewish world.

There are many non-Jews who understand and accept the concepts to a greater or lesser degree, but they all are moving forward and turning away from the ways of idolatry toward Torah. There are various individuals and groups who differ in their degree of break with Christianity and their attitude toward rabbinic authority. But they are moving away from Hellenized Christianity and toward Torah.

There is a prohibition against allowing idolaters to live in the Land of Israel when Israel has the power to enforce it. When external pressure limits the authority of the government, the effective power of that prohibition is mitigated. When there are opinions that certain practitioners of other religions, such as Christians, are not idolaters, there is a further reason to be lenient. The obligation to be responsible
for the welfare and livelihood of a resident non-Jew "ger toshav" will not apply according to many opinions.

Our proposal, subject to extensive study by rabbis, jurists and public figures, would be to regularize the naturalization of non-Jews as citizens according to certain civic and spiritual criteria.

They may not be inimical to the Jewish people and the Jewish state, such as hatemongers and terrorists. They may not be inimical to Judaism, such as Christian missionaries and proponents of cults.

They could be granted citizenship or residency (to be decided) by virtue of making a formal acceptance of the Seven Laws of Noah before a court (rabbinical, civil or composite, to be decided). They would not receive the same material benefits as olim, thus weeding out those who come for economic advantage, chiefly from Third World countries.

Being non-Jews, they would not be permitted to marry Jews and would be required to sign a legal document forbidding them to marry anyone Jewish, whether in Israel or elsewhere, on pain of forfeiting residence rights in Israel. Those presently married to Jews would be allowed to stay so by a "grandfather clause", but the personal status of their children would be regulated by Jewish law as at present. Those opting for full
conversion to Judaism would receive olim benefits only if they converted some number of years before immigrating.

There would be a sharp curtailment of the number of Orthodox conversions performed both in Israel and in the Diaspora. Non-Orthodox conversions would be considered as being for the purpose of religious association only. The slippage in validation of Jewish identity in the world would, sadly, continue. This would force the Chief Rabbinate and halachically observant Jews in Israel and the diaspora to work harder to maintain records of who is halachically Jewish.

We pray for the coming of the righteous Messiah, who will bring peace and G-dliness in the world, preceded by Elijah the Prophet, who will bring peace within the Jewish people and determine who is really a Jew after all.

Moadim L'Simcha from Kochav Hashachar,

Yehoshua Friedman