Jew Joining the Unitarian Church

Would you give me a definitive Teshuvo about disgruntled members joining the Unitarians? The latter, as I understand, say that every religion is welcome without surrendering prior loyalties. Do I regard such people as Jews or not? (From Rabbi Perry E. Nussbaum, Jackson, Mississippi)

It is impossible to be definitive on this matter because in general there is a certain amount of vagueness in the legal tradition as to the status of a person who joins another religion. Furthermore, the status of Unitarianisni per se, in its specific relationship to Judaism, has not yet been defined.

Let us begin by considering a clearer situation. The status of a Jew who joins a Christian church, as for example, in the situation which was fairly frequent a generation ago: a Jew joining the Christian Science Church. I discussed this matter in Reform Jewish Practice, Vol. I, pp. 140 ff. In general the attitude of the tradition in the case of one who joins, let us say, the Christian or Mohammedan religion seems to be this: With regard to his trustworthiness as a witness in the Jewish court or, let us say, what is more relevant today, his acceptability as a witness at a marriage ceremony (as to the ketubah and the ring), or with regard to his being counted to a minyan—in all these mitzvos he has lost his Jewish rights. But with regard to marriage and divorce, these family rights are his by birth. He does not lose them by his apostasy. He can marry a Jewess, and if he is already married to a Jewess, Orthodox law would not free her from him unless he gives her a get. In other words, his marriage rights are his by birth and these he cannot lose, and it is in reference to these marriage and divorce rights that we say in the Talmud, “Even though he has sinned, he is still a Jew.” But with regard to all other Jewish relationships, he has forfeited his rights; he is no longer a Jew.

Now, let us see how this applies to Unitarians. The special virtue claimed for Unitarianism in relation to Judaism is that Unitarians are not trinitarians but generally monotheists. So far as that is concerned, monotheism on the part of a Gentile is not a source of special privilege on the part of Judaism. A trinitarian Gentile has just as respected a status in Judaism as a unitarian Gentile (as, for example, Mohammedans) because all Gentiles are legally “children of Noah,” and children of Noah are not forbidden to add forms of deity to God (shittuf). Hence, a trinitarian Gentile is still deemed one “whose righteous have a portion in the world to come.” Therefore, if Gentiles happen to be monotheists like Moslems or Unitarians, they have not gained in status in the eyes of Judaism, because even trinitarianism would not lower their status.

While, then, a Unitarian joining Judaism would, like a Moslem, need to undergo full conversion, no more nor less than if he were a trinitarian, what, however, is the status of a Jew who joins them? Surely, it is less a sin for a Jew to join a unitarian form of a non-Jewish religion than to join a trinitarian form of it. This would seem so, because certainly adding forms of deity to God (shittuf) while permitted to a “son of Noah” is forbidden to a Jew; so joining Islam or Unitarianism should be a smaller sin. But in real ity it is not so, because the sin involved in joining another religion is not merely the form of deity worshiped, but the abandonment of the fellowship of Israel. A man who abandons the fellowship of Israel ceases to be a Jew, no matter whether he becomes a trinitarian or a monotheistic Gentile.

The law on this matter goes back to the post-Talmudic treatise Semachot 2 : 8, in which, after discussing suicides, it adds: “All who depart from the ways of the congregation are given no funeral rites,” and so forth. In other words, they cease to be Jews. Maimonides (“Hilchos Avel” I: 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 such 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.

Of course, if they retain their membership in the congregation and they continue to attend services, and merely have added a membership in the Unitarian Church, that is only a minor offense. It is in such a case that it would be more or less relevant that Unitarians are not trinitarians. But if they have resigned from the congregation to join a Unitarian church, then they clearly belong to the group which Maimonides and the Shulchan Aruch describe as “those who separate themselves from the congregation.”