Joseph

Trial lawyers who argue civil and matrimonial cases in court and lie on behalf of their clients.

Civil and family lawyers also, often, knowingly make claims in court that are false, especially if they think it isn’t provable otherwise.

mw13: English translation of the Hebrew proclamations of 1935 and 1946, and the 1984 proclamation (originally in English).

A RABBINICAL PROCLAMATION

Adar 5695 (February 1935)

We have observed the conditions prevailing in the general Jewish community, where some youth have left the haven of their faith and have assimilated with non-Jews; in certain cases they have made efforts to marry gentiles, sometimes without any effort to convert them, and other times an effort is made for conversion to our faith, an action which is absolutely invalid and worthless in the eyes of the law of our Torah. We have therefore bestirred ourselves to build and establish an iron wall to protect our identity and religious integrity and to bolster the strong foundations of our faith and religious purity which we have maintained for many centuries going back to our country of origin, Syria.

We, the undersigned rabbis, constituting the Religious Court, together with the Executive Committee of the Magen David Congregation and the outstanding laymen of the community, do hereby decree, with the authority of our Holy Torah, that no male or female member of our community has the right to intermarry with non-Jews; this law covers conversions, which we consider to be fictitious and valueless. We further decree that no future rabbinic court of the community should have the right or authority to convert male or female non-Jews who seek to marry into our community. We have followed the example of the community in Argentina, which maintains a rabbinic ban on any of the marital arrangements enumerated above, an edict which has received the wholehearted and unqualified endorsement of the Chief Rabbinate in Israel. This responsa is discussed in detail in Devar Sha’ul, Yoreh Deah, Part II to Part VI. In the event that any member of our community should ignore our ruling and marry, their issue will have to suffer the consequences. Announcements to this effect will be made advising the community not to allow any marriage with children of such converts. We are confident that the Jewish People are a holy people and they will adhere to the decision of their rabbis and will not conceive of doing otherwise.

Chief Rabbi Haim Tawil

Rabbi Jacob Kassin

Rabbi Murad Masalton

Rabbi Moshe Gindi

Rabbi Moshe Dweck Kassab

A SUBSEQUENT CLARIFICATION OF THE ORIGINAL PROCLAMATION

Adar 5706 (February 1946)

On the 9th day of Adar I in the year 5706 corresponding to the 10th day of February, 1946, the rabbis of the community and the Committee of Magen David Congregation once again discussed the question of intermarriage and conversions. The following religious rabbinic decisions were promulgated and accepted:

I. Our community will never accept any converts, male or female, for marriage.

2. The rabbi will not perform any religious ceremonies for such couples, i.e., marriages, circumcisions, bar mitzvahs, etc. In fact, the Congregation’s premises will be barred to them for use of any religious or social nature.

3. The Mesadrim of the Congregation will not accord any honors to the convert or one married to a convert, such as offering him an Aliyah to the Sefer Torah. In addition, the aforesaid person, male or female, will not be allowed to purchase a seat, permanently or for the holidays, in our Congregations.

4. After death of said person, he or she is not to be buried on the cemetery of our community, known as Rodfe Zedek, regardless of financial considerations.

Seal of the Beth Din of Magen David Congregation

Chief Rabbi Jacob S. Kassin

REAFFIRMING OUR TRADITION

WHEREAS, throughout the history of our community, our rabbis and lay leaders have always recognized the threat of conversions and the danger of intermarriage and assimilation; and have issued warnings and proclamations concerning these evils in February 1935, February 1946 and in May 1972. NOW, THEREFORE, we assembled rabbis and Presidents of the congregations and organizations of the Syrian and Near Eastern Jewish communities of Greater New York and New Jersey do now and hereby reaffirm these proclamations, and pledge ourselves to uphold, enforce and promulgate these regulations. We further declare that Shabbat Shuvah of each year be designated as a day to urge our people to rededicate themselves to these principles. IN WITNESS WHEREOF, we have caused this document to be prepared and have affixed our signatures thereto, at a special convocation held on this third day of Sivan 5744 corresponding to the 3rd day of June 1984.

Dr. Jacob S. Kassin, Chief Rabbi

(Signed by the rabbis and presidents of every synagogue, yeshivah, and social organization of the Sephardic Jewish communities of New York and New Jersey.)

Yekke’s got my full vote here.

Hey, newbee and mdd: This is our backdoor opportunity to continue our machlokes from the closed thread. Let’s not let this opportunity pass without taking full advantage of it!!

L’sheim Shamayim, of course.

(Watch as Syag takes this seriously and two years from now links to this thread to prove I’m a baal machlokes. That’s the funnest part!)

You said seven posts to closing. I didn’t count but it was more like 50 more.

A boy growing up in Meah Shearim doesn’t tell you something that he’s likely very different, in specific ways, than a boy growing up in Teaneck?

newbee: If you prioritize a bas talmid chochom, you will tell the non talmidei chachomim they don’t make the cut for your shidduch priorities for that reason?

mdd: You didn’t address the questions in this post:

Shidduchim for Jews of color

I didn’t suggest making public hakpodos in klal yisroel. I’m speaking of having personal, private, priorities for one’s own shidduchim prospects. Without public fanfare.

newbee: If you’re an American Jew, most Israeli Jews wouldn’t consider your family marriage material. (And vice versa.) If you’re MO, most Chareidim wouldn’t consider your family marriage material. If you’re Litvish, most Chasidim wouldn’t consider your family marriage material. (And vice versa.)

So you’d be uncomfortable at the Shabbos tables of Israelis, Chareidim and Chasidim – and would never consider being a member of their shuls?

mw13: That doesn’t answer my question.

A potential ger should be forewarned about the difficulties in shidduchim so they could consider that before converting. A potential BT should not be deterred from becoming a BT by being given such a warning since he has an obligation to become a BT regardless of any difficulties in shidduchim.

mdd: Do you consider it okay to consider one skin color more desirable than another for shidduchim? Speaking personally, would you be less comfortable marrying (or having your son marry) a black girl?

Do you consider it okay to consider being a born-Jew more desirable than a ger for shidduchim? You said yichus is a valid positive consideration, and virtually every born Jew (especially coming from a frum line) has better yichus than geirim. If someone feels he will only marry someone with a lot of good yichus (which you appear okay with), he is effectively excluding geirim in his shidduchim.

mdd: If your daughter was redt two otherwise equal guys for a shidduch, one was a black ger born in Nigeria (now living in the US) and the other was Jewish born in the US with a long line of documented yichus from both sides directly back to Rashi and the gedolim in the doros since. The American for whatever reason won’t be available for dating for a week after the Nigerian is available for dating, but other than the aforementioned both are equally good boys and a match for your daughter. Would you have your daughter first date the Nigerian?

Matan1: No. But that wouldn’t affect that left-handedness is a mum.

Can you get up earlier to daven with tefillin?

I believe the Tosher Rebbe in Quebec is reachable via phone.

popa, having preferences in shidduchim isn’t an invention.

Indeed.

I didn’t say they should. I said they may elect to achieve that higher level of kedusha should they so wish.

A Kohen is more holy than a non-Kohen thus he cannot injure his holiness with tumas meis. A Yisroel doesn’t have that prohibition, since he is less holy than a Kohen, but I think it would be a good idea for a Yisroel to avoid picnicking in a cemetery or to use a cemetery as a shortcut even if it would be longer to go around it. So that example, too, shows that a Yisroel can (and may be best to) avoid a tuma even if it isn’t forbidden to him.

I said it is fair for a non-kohen to elect to make it a consideration for himself. If the Torah considers it to be a virtue for a kohen to marry a non ger, as that is a higher status, a non-kohen may elect to also only wish to marry someone of such status that the Torah considers to be higher.

mdd, I think you should insist that half your children only marry geirim, and no one else, and the other half only marry BTs, and not consider anyone else in order to reduce the pain of geirim and BTs in shidduchim and help keep them on the derech. Definitely don’t waste any of the marriages on FFBs.

BTW, would you have married a Satmar girl or a MO girl or been happy to marry your daughter to a Lubavitch guy or a DL guy? Are you against considering weight, height, hair color or a girl’s prettiness when considering shidduchim?

Is considering a potential shidduch’s cultural and national background legitimate in your eyes? Does the Torah permit consideration of a potential shidduch’s status as a ben nidda? Would you marry a newly minted BT or newly minted Ger?

Is it okay for an Ashkenazi to want to only marry an Ashkenazi or for a Sephardi to only want to marry a Sephardi?

mdd, would you want to work for someone who hates you and doesn’t want to hire you, but is hiring you because the law requires him to?