c. 1996 Religion News Service
Israeli law would invalidate non-Orthodox conversions to Judaism
(RNS) Israel’s Orthodox Jewish political parties announced plans Thursday (Oct. 31) to introduce legislation to invalidate Reform and Conservative conversions to Judaism in Israel.
The Orthodox parties say Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government supports the measure, the Jerusalem Post reported. Netanyahu so far has not commented on the matter, but the Orthodox parties are a key element of his ruling coalition.
Word of the proposed legislation set off alarms among non-Orthodox leaders, who warned the law could also be used to prevent individuals who have had a non-Orthodox conversion outside of Israel from settling there under the nation’s Law of Return.
The Law of Return grants automatic citizenship to anyone born to a Jewish mother or anyone who has converted to Judaism. Israel’s High Court of Justice has declared valid any conversion conducted outside the country. A statement issued by the American Jewish Congress said the proposed bill aims to circumvent that court ruling.
The American Jewish Congress, a New York-based advocacy group that has few Orthodox supporters, warned that passage of the bill”would truly be catastrophic for what remains of Jewish unity. The attempt of the religious establishment in Israel to extend its domain over conversions in the diaspora as well can only serve decisively to alienate large segments of world Jewry from Israel.” Given the divisions that already separate Orthodox from non-Orthodox Jews in Israel as well as the United States, the American Jewish Congress added,”a new state-sanctioned attack on religious pluralism is utterly the last thing the Jewish people need.” Rabbi Eric H. Yoffie, president of the Reform movement’s Union of American Hebrew Congregations, and Rabbi Ismar Schorsch, chancellor of the Conservative Judaism’s Jewish Theological Seminary, sent a joint letter to Netanyahu asking for a meeting on the issue.
Yoffie and Schorsch said the proposed legislation has them”gravely concerned.” Jewish Orthodoxy reigns supreme in Israel, and Conservative and Reform Judaism have little legal standing there. Weddings performed in Israel by non-Orthodox rabbis, for example, are not legally recognized.
While few Israeli Jews belong to Reform or Conservative synagogues, the two movements account for the overwhelming majority of American Jews. Less than 10 percent of American Jews are Orthodox.
Past attempts by Israel’s Orthodox leaders to tighten the Law of Return have ignited opposition from non-Orthodox Jews outside Israel, leading each time to their eventually failure.
The proposed bill _ which is expected to be introduced into the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, within the next few weeks _ could also have grave implications for tens of thousands of immigrants from the former Soviet Union who are relatives of Jews but are not Jews themselves according to Orthodox standards.
Survey: American Muslims prefer Clinton over Dole
(RNS) American Muslims favor President Bill Clinton over Republican challenger Bob Dole by more than 40 percentage points, according to a poll released Friday (Nov. 1).
The American Muslim Council said a survey of 926 Muslims living in 39 states showed they preferred the president over Dole 59 percent to 16 percent. Support for Reform Party candidate Ross Perot stood at four percent, while 21 percent were undecided or supported other candidates on Tuesday’s presidential ballot.
The poll’s results, which have a 3.5 percent margin of error, were similar to those of a survey of Muslims of Arab descent that was released in early October. That poll, conducted for the Arab American Institute, had Arab-American Muslim voters favoring Clinton over Dole 57.5 percent to 14.5 percent.
The poll conducted for the American Muslim Council included all Muslims _ Arab-Americans, African-Americans, Asian-Americans and others.
The survey also found that 63 percent of American Muslims _ estimated to number between three million and six million _ are registered voters.
The poll also asked American Muslims their opinions on various issues.
About 75 percent supported making English the United States’ official language; 50 percent backed recently enacted welfare reforms; 57 percent backed prayer in public schools; 65 percent favored affirmative action programs, and 30 percent favored placing new restrictions on immigration.
Also, 65 percent supported the U.S.-backed Israeli-Arab peace process; 77 percent backed the death penalty for murderers; 45 percent favored cutting welfare spending; 52 percent favored making all abortions illegal, except in cases when the mother’s life is at risk, and 39 percent approved of the recently enacted anti-terrorism bill.
Archbishop draws ire for saying Clinton vote is a”sin” (RNS) Americans United for Separation of Church and State filed a formal complaint Friday (Nov. 1) with the Internal Revenue Service over comments made by retired New Orleans Archbishop Philip Hannan that”no Catholic should vote for … President Clinton or (Democratic Senate candidate) Mary Landrieu.” To do so, the 82-year-old Hannan told a news conference, would be”a sin.” Americans United told the IRS that the comments appear to violate laws barring tax-exempt organizations such as the Roman Catholic Church, from partisan politicking.
In his Wednesday (Oct. 30) remarks Hannan said he was speaking for other Catholic bishops in Louisiana as well as for himself.
Although the Roman Catholic Church takes positions on a host of public policy questions, it does not endorse or oppose particular candidates for office.
An hour after Hannan’s news conference, a spokesman for Archbishop Francis Schulte, head of the diocese of New Orleans, said that the archdiocese neither supports nor opposes candidates”so in that regard Archbishop Hannan was speaking for himself.” Barry Lynn, executive director of Americans United, said the disclaimer issued by the archdiocese”rings hollow in light of Schulte’s advance agreement to the press conference and his own public stance on the November election.” Lynn noted that in the Oct. 3 edition of the Clarion Herald, Schulte had called on Catholics to cast their ballots on the basis of candidates’ stands on the abortion issue.”The Internal Revenue Code … strictly forbids church intervention in partisan political campaigns,”Lynn said.”I believe the situation we have documented here merits IRS investigation.” In an interview Lynn said it was”inconceivable”that the archdiocese didn’t know what Hannan planned to say but that even if it didn’t, the”the damage was done when the statement was made. The statement was an offense under the law and you can’t remove the offense.”As a matter of law you can’t endorse a candidate and then later say, oops, I shouldn’t have done that,”he said.
In 1995, the IRS revoked the tax-exempt status of the Church at Pierce Creek in Binghampton, N.Y., for publishing advertisements in 1992 advising voters that it was a sin to cast ballots for Bill Clinton, then a candidate for president.”The Hannan news conference seems to present a similar set of facts,”Lynn said in his call for an IRS investigation of the incident.
Landrieu, a Roman Catholic, issued a statement saying that she”respectfully”disagreed with Hannan. “I am one of nine children from a Catholic family,”she said.”I am the mother of an adopted son, and my husband was an adopted son. It should be obvious that I don’t advocate abortion.” She is running in a close race against state Rep. Woody Jenkins, who has strong ties to the Christian Coalition, according to the New Orleans Times-Picayune.
The IRS does not comment on complaints it receives or investigations it might undertake.
Update: Churches, aid groups stymied by African conflict
(RNS) The World Council of Churches said Friday (Nov. 1) that”new forms”of international action are necessary to end the chaotic conflict in central Africa. World Vision, the evangelical aid agency, warned the deepening crisis could”ignite a holocaust”in the region.
The statements came as reports from Zaire indicated increased fighting between Zairean army units and rebel Tutsi Zaireans in the eastern part of the country.
Reuters reported that at least 100 foreigners _ thought to be Belgian and Italian missionaries _ were trapped in the Roman Catholic cathedral in Bukavu, Zaire, the site of fierce fighting earlier in the week during which Roman Catholic Archbishop Christophe Munzihirwa was among those slain.
On Friday, a spokesman for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Kinshasa, said that”several”local UNHCR workers had been killed in an ambush near Bukavu.
Meanwhile, panicked residents began fleeing from Goma, about 60 miles north of Bukavu on Lake Kivu at the Zaire-Rwanda border as the rebels advanced on the town and the nearby refugee camps.
The fighting is fueling a refugee crisis that could match in scale the 1.1 million Rwandan Hutus, who fled to Zaire in 1994 fearing reprisals for the Hutu massacre of a half million Tutsi.”Where yesterday Lutheran World Federation staff in Goma were distributing food, shelter and blankets among the 400,000 people gathered in two camps, today there is a state of seige, curfew and talk of evacuation,”the aid agency said.”Efforts to help those caught in the war zone are being overwhelmed by the sheer numbers of people on the move and by the prevalence of the fighting,”it said.
Robert Seiple, the president of the Federal Way, Wash.-based World Vision, called for quick U.S. action.”It did not act quickly in Rwanda two years ago and, as a result, 1 million people were killed and an entire infrastructure was destroyed,”he said.
Seiple said the U.S., together with the United Nations, should act to create a”safe corridor”between Zaire and Rwanda for the movement of refugees and displaced persons; call a summit meeting of national and factional leaders involved in the fighting; establish a peacekeeping force from outside the Central Lakes region to restore order and ensure safe delivery of humanitarian assistance.
World Vision International, the parent agency of World Vision, said it has committed $100,000 for an emergency response to the Zaire crisis.
The WCC, in a message sent to its 330 member churches, also said that an international force may be necessary to restore order.”If so, it must be under UN Security Council authority, international in composition and command, and neutral.” The council also appealed to the warring parties to allow humanitarian organizations to be allowed to operate freely in and out of areas of conflict.”Threatened populations have a right to emergency aid in terms of food, medicine and shelter,”it said.
Pope John Paul II marks 50 years as a priest
(RNS) Pope John Paul II, still recovering from surgery earlier this month to remove an inflamed appendix, is marking the 50th anniversary of his ordination as a priest.”I ask you to join me in thanking God for the many graces which he has given me in my ministry as priest, bishop and successor of St. Peter,”John Paul said in brief remarks Wednesday (Oct. 30) as he spoke to pilgrim’s gathered in St. Peter’s Square beneath the windows of his private apartment.
The Vatican has planned a series of events to commemorate the golden anniversary of John Paul’s ordination 50 years ago in Krakow, Poland, including publication of a memoir on his years as a priest. Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls said the book, to be published later this month, will be called”Gift and Mystery,”and is partly autobiographical and partly a reflection on the priesthood.
On Thursday evening (Oct. 31), John Paul attended a concert in his honor by the Salzburg Chamber Orchestra featuring a performance of Handel’s”Messiah.””I extend my gratitude to the many people I have met along my road and that, in different ways, have helped me on the way in these years,”he said.
On Friday John Paul concelebrated Mass with all the parish priests of Rome and a second Mass to which all priests ordained the same year as the pope are invited to attend. An estimated 1,700 of the 7,000 are expected in Rome for the occasion.
The main ceremony is scheduled for Nov. 10, when prelates from around the world are expected to attend a Mass at St. Peter’s.
Zimmerman takes reins of Reform Judaism’s seminary
(RNS) Rabbi Sheldon Zimmerman was inaugurated Thursday (Oct. 31) as the seventh president of Reform Judaism’s Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion.
The four-campus seminary _ with branches in Jerusalem, New York, Los Angeles and Cincinnati _ trains Reform rabbis, cantors, educators and communal workers and offers postgraduate degrees to students of all faiths.
Zimmerman, who graduated from the seminary’s New York branch in 1970, was inaugurated in Cincinnati, where the institution was founded 121 years ago. The ceremony was held at the city’s historic Plum Street Temple, where Rabbi Issac M. Wise, HUC-JIR’s first president, was also inaugurated.
Until last year, Zimmerman served as senior rabbi of Temple Emanu-El in Dallas. He informally assumed the duties of HUC-JIR president in January, replacing Alfred Gottschalk, who became chancellor. Gottschalk had been president for a quarter-century.
Quote of the day: the Dalai Lama
(RNS) The globe-trotting Dalai Lama, exiled spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhism, is in many ways a cosmopolitan sophisticate and shrewd political operative. But there may be some areas of life still beyond his ken. Time magazine reports that the Dalai Lama, on being told that the Chinese were building a dance hall beneath the Potala Palace in his homeland of Tibet interrupted the explanation to ask:”What’s a disco?”JC END ANDERSON
