Newsgroup: it.politica.internazionale
Titolo: Situazioni...imbarazzanti...Dove? Guess...

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/461655.html
Alla faccia dello stato 'laico'...
Hitting below the belt
By Lily Galili
Since he was 10 years old, 'Igor' has known he is Jewish. However, the Court
for Clarifying Judaism, where he was asked to drop his pants to prove his
religion, thought otherwise.
A few months ago, Igor (not his real name) reported to the Chief Rabbinate's
Court for Clarifying Judaism, where he was asked to LOWER HIS PANTS so
officials could check whether he had been circumcised. This embarrassing
event occurred at a religious court that operates against the law and in
contravention of a High Court of Justice ruling.
Ever since he was 10 years old, Igor has known that he is Jewish. At home in
eastern Ukraine, too, they said he was Jewish, even though his parents had
elected not to have him circumcised, for fear of the reaction of people
around him. He internalized his Judaism mainly as a national identity and as
a fact of life, according to which he could know in advance to which
university he would not be accepted and in which profession he would not be
able to work.
The gates of the former Soviet Union opened 14 years ago, when Igor was 28,
and he immigrated to Israel with his parents. On their identity cards, all
of them were listed as Jewish. Igor found work in his profession as a
computer programmer and built a life for himself in his new homeland. After
a while, he met a young woman who had immigrated to Israel one year after he
did. They lived together, they had a son and a few months ago they decided
to get married. Together they applied to the rabbinate.
In retrospect, said Igor, he had expected problems. Friends in a similar
situation had warned him that the issue of his Judaism would come up at the
rabbinate. They told him that they had been required to bring family members
who speak Yiddish to prove that they are Jewish and that the rabbis had
scrutinized their facial features and their noses to determine their
Judaism, just like in Ukraine. They also warned him that he would be asked
whether he is circumcised and advised him to lie.
Armed with this information, Igor, now 42, went to the Court for the
Clarification of Judaism. He recalled what happened there with great
embarrassment. After a number of preliminary questions, Igor was asked by
the dayanim (religious court judges) whether he had undergone a
circumcision. Igor lied and said that he had. If so, proposed one of the
dayanim, please go into a side room, where there is a mohel (ritual
circumciser) who will inspect your circumcision. Igor felt he had been
caught with his pants down, in both senses of the word: He had been caught
in a lie, and he was also required to drop his pants in front of a stranger.
"Even if I had been circumcised, I was not prepared to go through that
humiliating ritual," he said angrily. "It's a shame that the Jewish Agency
officials who come to encourage immigration to Israel conceal from us what
can be expected in this country." After he mumbled a few words, he fled the
courtroom.
From there, the couple turned to the New Family nonprofit organization,
which is experienced in finding alternative solutions to marriage at the
rabbinate. There, attorney Irit Rosenblum suggested a number of options. The
couple chose to marry in Cyprus.
Unauthorized activity
Igor went through this entire humiliating experience at the Court for the
Clarification of Judaism, which was established by the Council of the Chief
Rabbinate and operates, as noted, in contravention of a High Court of
Justice ruling. Two years ago, the New Family organization petitioned the
High Court in the matter of the illegality of the Court for the
Clarification of Judaism. Under an agreement between the two sides that was
submitted to the High Court, the Chief Rabbinate of Israel undertook to
issue revised procedural directives for the registration of marriage, from
which Provision 9 - by virtue of which, and with respect to immigrants who
arrived in the country after 1990, the Court for the Clarification was
operating - would be eliminated. Following the agreement reached between the
sides, the petition was withdrawn.
However, two years after the order of the High Court of Justice, the Court
for the Clarification of Judaism continues to operate, unhindered. A week
before its summer break, it was possible to get by phone clear instructions
about when to come, where to pay the NIS 50 fee and what documents to bring
to this court.
In response to a query about Igor's case, the Chief Rabbinate's spokesman
said he had checked and that such a thing had never happened. For an answer
regarding the continued activity of the Court for the Clarification of
Judaism despite the High Court of Justice ruling, he directed Haaretz to the
legal adviser to the Chief Rabbinate, attorney Shimon Ulman.
"I was not aware that they are continuing to operate," said Ulman. "In
principle, the institution does not exist legally. Although I think that a
court for the clarification of Judaism is a very important project, a priori
that system had no legal authority. If they were to set it up in a proper
and legal way, it could fulfill an important function. But that is not the
way it was established, and in the very fact that it is continuing to
operate, it is doing something that is unauthorized."
Attorney Rosenblum said that from the outset this court was a kind of
"androgynous" entity based on collaboration between the Religious Council
and the administration of the rabbinical courts. The latter set up a kind of
legal instance where there is no possibility of appeal, and which also
charged a fictive fee. This was the initial reason for the petition to the
High Court of Justice that was filed by New Family. According to Rosenblum,
in the agreement between the sides that was submitted to the High Court of
Justice, the rabbis were given 90 days to submit a new procedure for
registering marriages, in the framework of which there would be a
termination of the Court for the Clarification of Judaism. This never
happened.
Igor's story, which is also the story of many people in the immigrant
community, took place after the court was already operating illegally.
Attorney Ulman says that in the absurd situation that has been created, even
the recognition of a person's Judaism by the Court for the Clarification of
Judaism is not binding - because the court is operating illegally.

 Judaism, just like in Ukraine.
Questa ultima parte non mi e' chiara. Magari qualche esperto in materia
avra' la bonta' di spiegarmelo:
Cosa si intende per controllare la caratteristiche facciali e del naso per
determinare la sua 'ebraicita' '. Che c'entrano le caratteristiche somatiche
con la religione/cultura ebraica?
Detta cosi', sembra quasi che si voglia evidenziare la ebraicita' come una
caratteristica somatica (ovvero, detto senplicemente, razza)...
K

happened.
Ci sono prove del contrario?
-Stefano