MARRIAGE WITH ETHICAL CULTURISTS

A member of the congregation is contemplating marriage with a girl of Jewish birth who was raised in the Ethical Culture Society. Does she need conversion before the marriage? (From Rabbi Michael A. Robinson, Croton-on-Hudson, New York.)

THE problem involved in the question is one which has been discussed in the Jewish literature for many centuries. The reason for the frequency of the question is the result of the phenomenon of the Spanish and Portuguese Marranos who for centuries kept escaping from those countries to Jewish communities, and coming to countries of Jewish residence, desired to be reaffiliated with the Jewish community. Some of these families of Marranos had not been practicing Judaism for generations (except perhaps in some rudimentary, surreptitious fashion).

Since these Marranos had been practicing Catholics for many generations, the question which arose was: Did they need conversion before being accepted into the Jewish community? The classic answer to this question by Solomon ben Simon Duran of Algiers (see The Responsa Literature, 218) was that as far as marriage was concerned, they are still Jews and that it would be wrong to convert them (be cause converting them would imply that until that conversion they were not obliged to obey the commandments, which is not so). In fact Duran says that as long as it was proved that the mother was Jewish, they are Jewish “up to the end of all generations.” Of course there were later, stricter opinions based on the accusation that they could have escaped sooner than they did, but in general the opinion of the law with regard to marriage is that they are Jews (see also Reform Jewish Practice, page 78).

Now, of course, the liberality of this judgment on the part of the law towards these Marranos is due (besides their birth) to the fact that their non-observance of Judaism was due to compulsion and not to free choice. Our question therefore narrows itself to this: If a Jew in America, where there is no religious compulsion, joins the Unitarian Church or the Ethical Culture Society, is he or she still to be considered a Jew and therefore not needing conversion? I have discussed this question rather fully in Recent Reform Responsa (see p. 56). Here as you will see, the question pivots on the fact of whether such people who joined these two groups meant by their joining to abandon the Jewish community. If they did, they come under the heading of “those who depart from the ways of the congregation.” This is described (on p. 58) as follows:

“Maimonides ( Hilchos Avel, 1:10) defines clearly what is meant by “those who depart from the ways of the congregation.” He says those who depart from the ways of the congregation, namely, those who break off the yoke of the commandments, are not included in Kelal Isroel, in the doing of mitzvos, in honoring the festivals, in attendance at synagogues, and so forth. This statement is embodied as law in the Shulchan Aruch, Yore Deah 345:5. Clearly, this describes those who join a Unitarian Church. They no longer attend the synagogue, they no longer observe the Jewish festivals. The fact that the form of church that they have joined is not trinitarian is no more relevant than if they had joined a Moslem mosque.”

This gives us a means of judgment of the Jewish status of such people. If, for example, a man joins the Unitarian Church and gives up his membership in the Temple and breaks off his relationship with the Jewish community, he is no longer a Jew. If his joining is merely an additional membership to the synagogue affiliation, he may be considered a Jew.

In this light, we can judge the members of the Ethical Culture Society liberally. When Felix Adler carefully called his organization a “Society,” he indicated that he did not mean that those who joined his Society should break with Jewish life. Two generations of experience with them indicates that they still consider themselves Jews, that most frequently they marry with Jews and associate with Jews.

Therefore on the basis of the spirit of the law, it is a reasonable answer to say that the young lady in question need not be converted to Judaism. She is a Jewess, but as happened frequently (especially in the cases of reconversion of apostates) the custom arose to have the people involved promise loyalty to Judaism (chaverus). If the bride will promise that she will continue to support her husband’s membership in the Temple and will raise the children as Jewish, giving them a Jewish religious education, then there is no impediment to this marriage.