The Phoenix Jewish news., 1958-07-18

degree to which he was pre-
mentation of religious rulings
THE NEWEST dispute boiled up
over a new identity card of the
Ministry of the Interior which in
effect allowed any Israeli inhabi-
tant to identify himself as a Jew
without further qualification than
his readiness to do so. Implementa-
ton of such Standardization
would profoundly affect the role
of the Chief Rabbinate in such fun
damental questions as marriage,
divorce, Inheritance, and similar
issues of personal status.
The United Religious party, COM
posed of Mizrachi and Hapoel
Hamizrachi, responded with the
resignation of Moshe Shapiro, the
minister of religions, and DR.. Jo-
seph Burg, the minister of posts,
as well as MoShe Unna, deputy
minister of education; Yaacov Ros-
enberg, deputy minister of social
welfare, and zorach Warhaftig,
deputy minister of religion.
THE DESIGNATIONS of the re-
Iigious cabinet officials and of the
IL religious deputies in Knesset did
not doom Ben Gurion's coalition
because the prime minister still
had a slight working majority.
However, the Mapai launched ne
gotiations to find a compromise
but all efforts failed.
Ben Gurion announced he would
temporarily hold both vacant port
folios, indicating hopes still per-
sisted for a solution. The resign
ing religious ministers, backed by
religious authorities, continued
their insistence that a person must
meet specific tests of Jewish law
before becoming officially Jew
, in Israel.
Ben Gurion, in his letter to Rabbi
Maimon, drew on Jewish Scriptures
to emphasize his position that be-
ing a Jew was not confined to
Jews who observed Jewish ritual.
He cited Psalm Is, which describes
the person ''who shall sojourn' in
the Tabernacle of the Lord, as one
who meets his obligations to his
fellow-man and called this "the
essence of JeWiShneSS.
THE PRIME minister also re-
ferred to the pledge in the Israel
Proclamation of independence de-
claring freedom of religion and
conscience as among the basic
principles. He added that this guar
antee did not mean that Israel
would be governed by Jewish Law
but, on the contrary, that Israel
should not be theocratic.
The prime minister said it was
fact, perhaps bitter fact, /"
that in matters of religion and re-
igiouS law, there is no unity
among the Jewish people. In Amer
lCd, I1lcLG are O'IltlOuOA, NOlISSA va
tive, Liberal and Reform rabbis.
There are many Jews who do not
belong to one or the other but are
in my opinion Jews as long as they
do not become converted to an
other religion"
THE ISSUE was joined more
sharply by a statement of Sep
hardic Chief Rabbi Yitzhak Nissim
and by declaration of the Chief
Rabbinical Council. Rabbi NiSsim
declared that Jewish law alone de-
termines who is a Jew and mo
government or other authority has
the power to decide this matter. i"
Referring to Ben Gurion's Psalm
ist definition, Rabbi Nissim said
that the Psalm was not the entire
Torah but only a part of it and
asked how, by such a definition,
the Jew was to be distinguished
from non-JewS.
The executive of the United Re-
ligious Party decided that the fail
ure of the government to offer an
acceptable compromise made il
necessary for the religious parties
to consider plans for future activ-
ity as an opposition party.
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