JUDAISM
A BRIDE's RECOGNITION
WHY DO SOME JEWS HAVE TO STRUGGLE FOR RECOGNITION?
Sammy Benjamin
wrote :
If the considerations are
straightforward then I would not fight the system. But when it works against
its own people for political and personal agendas, it becomes necessary to
speak up rather than allow ourselves to get discriminated against.
Why is it important that there be an established hierarchical institution that
needs to certify our devotion to our God and ones privilege to be recognized as
Jews?. Have Jews become like the Christians who need the Pope to make their important
decisions. Many questions arise that are baffling ;
· Do we need agents who negotiates our Jewish relationship between us and God?
· Do we need somebody to govern the degree of our devotion to God?
· Did God appoint such people to control who shall be deemed Jewish and who shall not?
· Does a forced conversion process satisfy the top brass of this man-made hierarchy?
· If a born Jew is violating Jewish customs, laws and traditions, is there a provision that demotes their Jewish status ?
I do not need answers to these questions, but hope they will help us apply some
introspect to rectify
the rules of recognition of pious Jews who are devoted to Judaism but
cannot produce a certificate from a hierarchical institution. Because we Jews are
not supposed to believe in such a heirarchy.
I am not vouching for the person in this news story as I do not know the
background. However I can fell the pain based on my own personal experiences. I
am happy that Bechollashon.org
has helped shed light on this issue and bring it to its readers.
News Story: Ethiopian
bride's fight for Jewish marriage
By Tova Dadon, ynetnews.com, September 15, 2010
Southern resident insists on being recognized as a Jew, refuses to undergo any conversion procedure after rabbis question her Jewish origins ahead of wedding. For four years she fights rabbinical establishment until she prevails.
Southern
resident insists on being recognized as a Jew, refuses to undergo any
conversion procedure after rabbis question her Jewish origins ahead of wedding.
For four years she fights rabbinical establishment until she prevails.
An Ethiopian woman fought for four years to be recognized as a Jew refusing
rabbis' demands to undergo conversion procedures and was even forced to
postpone her wedding. Last week, the Great Rabbinical court in Jerusalem declared she will be able to bathe in a mikveh prior to her wedding and ruled
there will be no record of her undergoing a procedure to return to Judaism.
The woman, a resident of southern Israel, and her partner scheduled their
wedding for August 2006, but never imagined four years would pass before they
would stand under a chuppah. In 2006, they held a celebration without the
traditional Jewish marriage ceremony as the rabbinate questioned the bride's Jewish origin.
After the couple first registered for marriage, the Ashdod religious council
forwarded the woman's file to Rabbi Yosef Hadana in Tel Aviv, who was ordained
by the Chief Rabbinate as the Ethiopian sector's marriage registrar.
The rabbi ruled that the woman was not Jewish after claiming to have been told
that her grandparents had converted to Christianity, and therefore refused to
validate her status as a Jew until she underwent a bathing procedure. The
Tebeka foundation, which provides legal aid to members of the Ethiopian sector,
saw little chances of overriding Hadana's decision.
However, the woman refused to undergo any form of conversion and turned to
Chief Sephardic Rabbi Shlomo Amar. She provided him with depositions of
witnesses who vouched for her and who stated they knew the family and its
Jewish origins. However, schedule difficulties prevented Amar from ruling on
the matter in time for the wedding, and the Chupah ceremony was never held.
Battling On
The woman did not give up and continued her campaign. Two attorneys from the
Tebeka foundation motioned a Rehovot court to intervene in the matter but were
rejected.
An appeal was eventually filed with the Jerusalem Rabbinical Court, which
recently reached a compromise acceptable by all parties, whereby the bride will bathe in a mikveh and the religious judges will wait
outside to ensure the procedure had indeed taken place.
According to the compromise, the bride will receive a
regular marriage certificate with no record that she was brought back to the Jewish
faith.
"I believed I was a Jew all along and was unwilling to undergo a procedure
of returning to Judaism because I know and believe my family," the bride said. "I am glad that it's over and now my sisters
will not have to go through this ordeal."
Originally published
here: http://www.ynetnews.com/
Another story of Discrimination against Ethiopian Jews :
Ministry ordered to pay NIS 280,000 compensation to Ethiopian children removed from Arad preschool
By Or Kashti, Haaretz
The Be'er Sheva Magistrate's Court has ordered the Arad municipality and the Education Ministry to pay NIS 280,000 in compensation to five Ethiopian immigrant families whose children were removed from kindergartens during the school year. The authorities had argued that the ratio of immigrant to non-immigrant pupils was too high.
In his ruling last week, Judge Gad Gideon criticized the municipality's "arbitrary decision" to remove the children from the kindergartens "and its refusal to allow them back for many months." The judge also criticized the Education Ministry for "not doing enough to foil the [municipality's] decision."
http://www.ethiopian-news.com/compensation-to-ethiopian-children-removed-from-arad-preschool/
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