Adoption issue new battleground for divisive ‘Who is a Jew’ debate

[Classical_Liberal]

World Jewry
Adoption issue new battleground for divisive ‘Who is a Jew’ debate
by Dina Kraft, the JTA



The Israeli government has 45 days to respond to a court challenge by the Reform movement questioning a policy that gives Orthodox families the exclusive right among Jews to adopt non-Jewish children born in Israel.
In the latest battleground in the emotionally charged Israeli debate over who is a Jew, the Reform movement says the policy discriminates against non-Orthodox families.

“This is about maintaining the monopoly of Orthodox conversion in Israel,” said Rabbi Uri Regev, executive director of the World Union for Progressive Judaism and one of the lawyers who submitted the petition to the Israel’s Supreme Court.

The questioning by Israel’s religious establishment of Reform and Conservative Jews’ legitimacy has caused a rift between Diaspora Jews — many of whom belong to the more liberal streams of Judaism — and Israel’s fervently Orthodox community, which dominates religious life in the Jewish state.

At a court hearing Wednesday, a panel of judges led by Chief Justice Aharon Barak said the government must explain the policy established by the state’s child welfare office...

http://www.virtualjerusalem.com/news/worldjewry/?disp_feature=d7m2fY.var

[IndianaGreen]

1. Another classic example of why theocracies are bad, no matter the religion

The difference between a Jewish state, which implies a theocracy, and a state for Jews, the noble secular Zionism of old. They are mutually exclusive concepts!

As Lenin said, religion is a private matter as far as the state is concerned.

[Jackie97]

2. Israel is a free country, indeed.

How can anybody say that they're a free country when they treat their own citizens so shamefully?

[Gimel]

3. I don't see

that this is an IP issue. Who is a Jew does not relate to the democracy or form of government. Non-Jews live in Israel.

Edited for clarity.