Word: halakha
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...promise that disturbs Israelis -about 70% of whom are nonobservant -is Begin's agreement to amend the "law of return," which makes Jews from any country eligible for Israeli citizenship. Conversions to Judaism will be considered legal only if they are done according to Halakha, meaning strict Orthodox tenets. The proposed change has already infuriated Conservative and Reform rabbis in the U.S.; marriages and divorces authorized by them would also be scrutinized more closely...
...weeks ago, the Supreme Court of Israel startled Jews the world over by setting aside Halakha-Jewish religious law-as the official standard for determining Jewish nationality (TIME, Feb. 2). Last week, faced with angry protest by Israel's National Religious Party, Premier Golda Meir's Cabinet produced a compromise solution...
...been trying for years to register his children (a son, now six, and a daughter, three) as Jews by nationality, if not by religion. The Israeli Interior Ministry, charged with registering births, refused to so do, arguing that Shalit's children do not meet the test of Halakha, which stipulates that a Jew, to be formally considered such, must have either been born of a Jewish mother or converted to Judaism. Shalit's wife Anne, a Scottish gentile, has not converted, nor have the children. The Shalits are both atheists...
...Supreme Court ruled 5-4 in favor of Shalit. The court did not resolve the substantive issue -an ancient one-of whether Jewishness is a matter of religion, nationality or culture. Instead, it based its ruling on a technicality: whether the government can use the test of Halakha to define nationality. The answer...
...will have to register his children as either "Jews" or "Hebrews." For Israel, however, the decision opens up a potentially grave internal squabble. The orthodox National Religious Party is determined to seek a law redressing the Supreme Court decision. One suggested solution would simply define a Jew according to Halakha. (No such law now exists.) Another might be to by-pass the question entirely by dropping the nationality and religious section from the registration rolls. Should Golda Meir's government fail to press for such action, the Religious Party will likely resign from the coalition-a prospect that prompted...