Rabbis’ blacklist

With regard to “Rabbinate blacklists 160 rabbis in Diaspora” (July 10), one starts reading a newspaper article with a certain amount of detachment. How does this affect me; am I involved in this event? Suddenly, the general becomes specific and the number 160 becomes unimportant because the reader identifies one of the names.

How can it be? This same God-fearing, soft-spoken person who for six months visited my sick father in the hospital each week and stood by my siblings during his last days, who hosted them during holidays and on Shabbat – he is now on some blacklist.

Tisha Be’Av is approaching. During this day, we are told to sit on the floor as a sign of mourning. The members of the Chief Rabbinate involved in this matter should not only sit on the floor, but also under a table and behind a black cloth, hiding their faces in shame. DAVID LUBOWITZ

Karmiel

Your report and the subsequent furor in your letters section is based on a misinterpretation of the document.

It was obviously a document compiled by some clerk, of persons who had in the past been given as references to verify Jewish identity but were found on investigation not to be suitably qualified. Its purpose was to expedite future applications by obviating the need to reinvestigate them. Since most of those listed were clergymen associated with the Reform and Conservative movements, they were not rabbis.

Both movements have made fundamental changes in theology and practice, so their “rabbis” are automatically disqualified. They are “streams” within Judaism only if any religion espoused by anyone claiming to

be Jewish is a form of Judaism. Once one accepts the concept of equally acceptable Jewish denominations, it becomes impossible to draw a line to allow some and exclude others.

By all means, let them register themselves as religions under Israeli law – but not as Judaism. This is the only “pluralism” that could possibly be acceptable. MARTIN D. STERN Salford, UK