6806 —נגד רישום ילדי אם נכריה כ"יהודי" בתוספת כינוי, והסתירות לחוקי המדינה

B"H, 11 Nissan, 5719
Brooklyn, N.Y.

To Mr. Avraham Yitzchak HaKohen, may he live long,
known as Prof. Katsh^[1]

Shalom u'Vrachah!

Many thanks to you for your letter, with the enclosed^[2] newspaper clippings, which I return to you herewith, as you asked.

I must say that I hold to my view that the proposal to resolve the question of registering children whose mother is not Jewish and has not converted by means of an additional designation, whatever it may be, attached to the designation "Jew" and the like – including the proposal of registration under the designation "Non-Identifying Jew" and the like^[3] – carries the very greatest danger of causing a rift in broad circles of our people, the people of the Children of Israel; in addition to other negative features, such as confusion and error with regard to marriage – if not in the Holy Land, may it be rebuilt and established, then at any rate abroad^[4] – etc., etc.

I have already hinted elsewhere that it is instructive that precisely at the going up of the Children of Israel from the Babylonian exile to the Land of Israel, the sharpest measures were taken to prevent anything of assimilation, intermingling with foreign peoples, etc., as related in the Book of Ezra^[5]. And although we have not yet merited the going up from exile to redemption, there is a common feature, and more, in our days: not only forty thousand went up to the Land of Israel, as was the case then^[6], but many times that number. And a mass aliyah of this kind demands not a weakening of the partitions that separate "between Israel and the nations"^[7], but on the contrary, their strengthening and reinforcement. This is not a matter for the religiously observant alone, or for the religious sphere alone, but a fundamental point in the existence of the people of the Children of Israel in all spheres, including the sphere of security in the plain sense, and more.

Incidentally, as to your remark about the contradiction between the Law of Return and the question of registering children of mixed parentage, and likewise, in the opposite direction, the contradiction between this question and the marriage law^[8] – although you are of course one hundred percent right, I intended, and took care, not to touch on this matter in my letters of reply on the question "Who is a Jew"^[9]; for even if these contradictions did not exist, and the question "Who is a Jew" stood first on the agenda, it would change nothing at all in the plainness and force of the answer to this question.

A further remark, on the difficulty that several people raise, wondering how to reconcile the solution with the principle of [non-]discrimination, which "must not be touched, G‑d forbid"^[10]: I have never understood what the one has to do with the other. For many Christians, Muslims, etc. live in the Land of Israel, and under the legislation they too have been given the right of non-discrimination; and nevertheless it would not enter anyone's mind to register them as Jews, etc. This also answers what you mention in your letter, that considerations of security and considerations of democracy have an influence on the way the question "Who is a Jew" is resolved – which, in my opinion, is not so, as above^[11].

This is the place to repeat my thanks for your lending me the second notebook^[12], which is being returned separately, together with a list of the discourses and letters in it that, as far as I remember, have already been printed. And surely, should more manuscripts of this kind come into your hands, you will allow me to see them and study them. My thanks to you in advance.

With respect and blessing, and especially the blessing for a kosher and happy Pesach.

Publisher's notes

Mr.… Katsh (מר.. כץ): Further letters to him: above, letter 6733, and the references in the notes there.

The proposal to resolve the question of registering (ההצעה לפתור שאלת רישום): See above, there.

In my letters of reply on the question "Who is a Jew" (במכתבי-מענה על השאלה מיהו יהודי): See above, vol. 18, letter 6714 (to Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion, 8 Adar I 5719: his formal reply on registering the children of mixed marriages) and letter 6715 (his personal letter to him the following day).

Notes

1. Prof. Katsh (המכונה פרופ' כץ): R. Avraham Yitzchak HaKohen Katsh (Abraham I. Katsh, 1908–1998), educator and scholar, founder of the Department of Hebrew Language and Education at New York University. On a visit to the Soviet Union in 1956 he arranged for thousands of Hebrew manuscripts in libraries there to be microfilmed, and published a catalogue of them (Encyclopaedia Judaica). The Rebbe thanked him for the catalogue and commented on it (vol. 15, letter 5616, 29 Tammuz 5717). On 28 Adar I 5719 the Rebbe wrote to him (letter 6733) opposing his proposal to register the children of mixed marriages as "Non-Identifying Jews", and thanked him for letting him study a manuscript. This letter continues that correspondence: the recipient replied, enclosed newspaper clippings and made several remarks, to which the Rebbe now responds.

2. Many thanks… the enclosed (ת"ח... המוסג"ב): ת"ח = תשואות חן, "many thanks"; המוסג"ב = המוסגר בו, "enclosed in it"; מכתבי עתים, "periodicals", i.e. newspapers.

3. "Non-Identifying Jew" (יהודי בלתי מזדהה): The proposal to register children whose mother is not Jewish and has not converted as "Jew" with a qualifying addition. The recipient himself had made this proposal in his article "The Non-Identifying Jew", and the Rebbe wrote to him against it (letter 6733). It is the registration question that Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion put to the Sages of Israel, to which the Rebbe replied (letter 6714) that a Jew "is he, and only he, who was born of a Jewish mother or a convert who converted in an exact conversion", and that "a verbal declaration of the wish to be registered as a Jew has no validity whatsoever".

4. If not in the Holy Land… then at any rate abroad (אם לא באה"ק ת"ו על כל פנים בחו"ל): באה"ק ת"ו = בארץ הקודש תבנה ותכונן, "in the Holy Land, may it be rebuilt and established"; חו"ל = חוץ לארץ, "abroad". Someone registered as a "Jew", even with a qualifier, may be taken for a Jew in every respect and married as a Jew. Even if in the Holy Land the error might be prevented – since there "marriages and divorces of Jews shall be performed in Israel in accordance with Torah law" (Rabbinical Courts Jurisdiction (Marriage and Divorce) Law, 5713, section 2) – abroad, at any rate, the error will occur.

5. As related in the Book of Ezra (כמסופר בספר עזרא): There Ezra required those who had come up to separate from the foreign wives they had married: "Now therefore make confession to the L‑rd, the G‑d of your fathers, and do His will, and separate yourselves from the peoples of the land and from the foreign wives" (Ezra 10:11).

6. Forty thousand… as was the case then (ד' רבבות... כמו שהי' אז): Though our aliyah today is not yet the going up from exile to redemption, it has a "common feature" (צד השוה, a Talmudic term) with the aliyah of Ezra's time, and more: then four myriads went up – "the whole congregation together was forty-two thousand three hundred and sixty" (Ezra 2:64) – and today many times that number.

7. "Between Israel and the nations" (המבדילות בין ישראל לעמים): After the wording of the Havdalah blessing: "Who separates between holy and secular… between Israel and the nations".

8. The Law of Return… the marriage law (חוק השבות... חוק הנשואין): The Law of Return (5710) opens: "Every Jew has the right to come to this country." The marriage law is the Rabbinical Courts Jurisdiction (Marriage and Divorce) Law, 5713, which states: "Marriages and divorces of Jews shall be performed in Israel in accordance with Torah law." The recipient pointed out that these laws contradict the question of registering children of mixed parentage; the Rebbe agrees that he is right, but explains that he deliberately did not touch on this.

9. My letters of reply on the question "Who is a Jew" (מכתבי-מענה על השאלה מיהו יהודי): His letters to Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion: the formal reply, letter 6714 (8 Adar I 5719), and the personal letter that accompanied it, letter 6715 (9 Adar I). There the Rebbe answered solely on the basis of the Torah and tradition, without touching on the contradictions between the laws, since his answer does not depend on them at all.

10. The principle of [non-]discrimination, which "must not be touched, G‑d forbid" (נקודת ההפלי' ש"לא לנגוע בזה ח"ו"): הפלי' = הפליה, "discrimination"; ח"ו = חס ושלום, "G‑d forbid". Some ask how one can rule that only a Jew according to halachah may be registered as a Jew without infringing the principle of not discriminating between citizens, a principle not "to be touched". In the words of the Declaration of the Establishment of the State: "it will ensure complete equality of social and political rights to all its inhabitants irrespective of religion, race or sex". The Rebbe answers that this is irrelevant: the Christians and Muslims in the country are entitled to equal rights, and yet no one registers them as Jews.

11. As above (כנ"ל): כנ"ל = כנזכר לעיל, "as mentioned above". Just as the right to equality does not require registering Christians and Muslims as Jews, so considerations of security and democracy have no bearing on the question "Who is a Jew".

12. The second notebook (הביכל השני): ביכל (Yiddish), "booklet, notebook" – a second manuscript that the recipient lent the Rebbe. For the first the Rebbe thanked him in letter 6733: "for giving me the opportunity to go through the manuscript 'Buch Vayikra'; enclosed on a separate sheet is a list of the discourses in it that have already been printed".

Summary

Continuing his correspondence with Prof. Katsh, the Rebbe holds that any registration of the children of non-Jewish mothers under a qualified designation such as "Non-Identifying Jew" risks a rift in the Jewish people and confusion in marriage. As in the return from Babylon under Ezra, a mass aliyah demands stronger, not weaker, separation from other peoples; the contradictions with Israeli law and the principle of non-discrimination do not affect the plain answer to "Who is a Jew".