Chief rabbi in school row

This is the weirdest story I have ever read! I cannot believe that the son of a woman that was converted to Judaism in Israel would not be recognized as bein Jewish.

Chief rabbi in school row

Matthew Taylor, education correspondent
Tuesday May 24, 2005
The Guardian

The chief rabbi, Dr Jonathan Sacks, has been given two weeks to decide whether an 11-year-old boy is Jewish after the child was refused a place at a popular religious school.

Guy Sagal's mother converted to Judaism in Israel in the early 1990s, a move authorised by the country's rabbinical court.

When her son applied to start at the Jewish Free School in Middlesex, the Office of the Chief Rabbi, the school's religious authority, decided her conversion was invalid and ruled that Guy was not Jewish and could not attend the school.

"I was shocked because it challenges our concept of who we are," said Helen Sagal, from Mill Hill, north London. "It is not as if I turned up with a certificate from some remote country where there are only a few Jewish people, I lived in Israel for six years and have an Israeli husband, and people there authorised and accepted my conversion. To be told years later that you are not who, or what, you thought you were is very unsettling for me and even more so for the children."

http://education.guardian.co.uk/schools/story/0,5500,1490750,00.html

I consider myself Jewish. I was raised Jewish. I am also adopted. I was adopted at 3 months of age by two Jewish parents. Ironically enough, my biological father was a Jewish Israeli.

After the adoption was final, I went through a conversion and the mikvah. Keep in mind, I was only about 1 yr old. I grew up, married a Jewish man, had kids. I belong to a Reform congregation and my oldest becomes a Bar Mitzvah next February.

A couple of years ago, I was studying with a group that was lead by a Chassidic Rabbi. According to him, not only am I not Jewish, but my children aren't either. I would need to go through the conversion process again as an adult and my kids would too, in order to be considered Jewish by Chassidic standards. Since we're happy in our Reform congregation, I did nothing further.

But, I can certainly see where this Rabbi is coming from.

Debbi

Nothing worse than the "Who's a Jew" fights... espcially in Isreal.

I *believe* most Modern Orthodox shuls would also consider you Jewish Debbie -- assuming your conversion at 1 yr was performed by an an Orthodox shul.

Now for the obligatory joke...

A Jew is stranded on a desert island, and found 20 years later. His rescuers look around, and notice two gorgeous shuls. They ask him why he built two. He looks around, points to to one one of them, and says "This one, I don't go to".

weren't so many Jews in Denver, but enough for - you guessed it - The Temple We Went To and The One We Didn't Go To:)