Reply to My sister is marrying a non-Jew. Help?

Forum Index » Religion

Reply to "My sister is marrying a non-Jew. Help?"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous](sympathetic C Jew again) To note the kids will be halachically Jewish (lets leave off with the "culturally Jewish" BS - the kids won't be speaking Yiddish, vaguely aware of Judaism is not "culturally Jewish") and at some point may have curiosity about Judaism. If you, OP, are involved in their lives, and can model a happy successful O life, they may be drawn either to O, or at least to some more Torah focused life.

I would also suggest you talk with an Orthodox rabbi familiar with the situation among non O in America (IE a mainstream modern O rabbi, esp one familiar with BT issues) Not sure a rabbi in Israel would be a good source on the sociology, even if you follow them on halacha. [/quote]

So the kids are only worth being involved with if they are "halachically" Jewish through the mother?  Such bullsh*t reasoning is why the numbers of Jews will decrease in the U.S.  My son is not "halachically" Jewish because I (the mom) am not, but I make a lot of effort to educate him and expose him to the faith.  If what you're intending is to alienate Jews and decrease your numbers, good job.  [/quote]

Exactly this. I am the PP with a Catholic mom and Jewish dad. There are a lot of reasons why I gravitated away from Judaism after my Bat Mitzvah, but one big one was recognizing [b]how many Jews don't even consider me Jewish, no matter what I do. 
[/b]
I am very spiritual but have found my own path because I found most Jewish communities intolerant. [/quote]

There are very very few Jews who would not consider you Jewish if you had a conversion ceremony.

I realize most patrilineal Jews don't want to do that, but some (for example those who become Orthodox) do precisely that. [/quote]

I know I can go through a conversion ceremony, but I don't feel I should do that. I went to Hebrew school and had a Bat Mitzvah. I know more about how to lead a Torah service than my MIL, who was raised as a modern Orthodox Jew and did not go through any formal Jewish education -- and yet she's considered Jewish and I'm not. [/quote]

Yes, she is because that is the halacha (outside Reform and Recon).  Which you were not taught, it would appear. I mean if you are a committed ideological Reform Jew, then of course to keep with your ideology you should not have a conversion ceremony - but you also should realize that it is not true that there is nothing you can do to get O to accept you as a Jew.  There view is different, and its no less legitimate than the Reform view.[/quote]

I fully understand it. I just don't accept it because it's arbitrary and undermines Jewish community cohesion. I know Orthodox and Conservative Jews can make up whatever rules they want for what makes someone Jewish, but I don't agree with that rule, so I decided to not join their community. [/quote]

Orthodoxy believes A That retaining traditional Halacha adds to community cohesion. Given how their communities have grown, and what has happened to ours, I find that hard to argue with  B. That following halacha is more important than community cohesion.

Halacha is not that easy to change (even for the C, but more so for O) so no, they cannot make up whatever rules they want.  However you can disagree.  And not join O or C. But it seems unreasonable to me to claim that they would not accept you whatever you do, when there is a thing you can do to get them to accept you, but you don't want to do it because of your own ideological position.[/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics