During the Kyiv Jewish Forum 2020, there was a heated dispute about the role of religion in Israel, as well as the importance of adhering to the religious dogmas by modern Jews.
The participants in the discussion were a member of the Presidium of the Jewish Confederation of Ukraine and Chief Rabbi of Kyiv Yaakov Dov Bleich, Chief Rabbi of the Jewish Community of Vienna Arie Folger, and a Knesset member Elazar Stern.
“The process of conversion to Judaism is too difficult,” Stern stated. In his opinion, the process of recognizing a citizen as a Jew has to comply with the realities of the contemporary Israeli society.
“Someone comes to convert, to declare: “I want to be a Jew!” But if he wants to become a Jew, why does no one ask him if he is ready to sacrifice his life to protect the Jewish people? Why is this not a relevant question in the process of conversion? According to my understanding of Judaism, this should be the most important question,” he said.
The Israeli Knesset member drew attention to the importance of making the assimilation process for Israeli immigrants less stringent. “The reality is that every day we have 15 newborns who are not recognized as Jews. And they are ordinary Israelis. And we need to adapt,” Stern believes.
Rabbi Dov Bleich stressed in response the importance of Judaism in Jewish life. “We have laws, there is a basis for the conversion, and this is the basis for people who want to live according to the Torah,” the rabbi noted.
He urged not to mix the government policy and the religious rules. “I think that a person who fought and gave his life for the Jewish people should receive the highest honors, no doubt. The question arises: what honors? If this honor is to be buried in a Jewish cemetery, then there is no need to desecrate Jewish laws by doing this. Let's make a special honorary cemetery, let's make a special section for the people who sacrificed their lives for the State of Israel. I am not saying that they are not worthy of this honor; they deserve the greatest honor, the question is which one?”– answered Rabbi Dov Bleich.
Rabbi Folger urged to apply to the Jewish scriptures to solve this problem. “The Talmud, the Torah and other sources insist that acceptance of the Commandments is an integral part of conversion to Judaism. Therefore, we must assess realistically – this must be understood in the world in which most Jews do not strictly observe Judaism – that by simply saying “I am a Jew” or “I want to be a Jew,” a person will not become a Jew,” he noted.
Kyiv Jewish Forum 2020 was held online on September 8-9. You can follow the progress of the forum on the website: https://congress.jpost.com/jcu2020/
As a reminder, the President of the Jewish Confederation of Ukraine Boris Lozhkin in his opening speech at the KJF 2020 spoke about the revival of the Jewish life in Ukraine.