Brighton rejects Reformchange on Jewish status

BRIGHTON AND Hove Reform Synagogue has rejected the Reform movement’s new policy to recognise the Jewish status of the children of Jewish fathers and non-Jewish mothers.

Reform rabbis voted in July to accept patrilineal Jews on the recommendation of the person’s local rabbi.

But Brighton chairman Michael Harris said this week that “we have decided we won’t be following the policy.

“We are not making any change to our current practice. We follow the principle of matrilineality. We are definitely more traditional in Brighton and I’m very confident that it suits the vast majority of our members.”

July’s decision to embrace “equilineal descent” has brought Reform closer to Liberal Judaism, which for more than half-a-century has recognised the children of Jewish fathers and non-Jewish mothers who are raised as Jewish. The American Reform movement adopted a similar position in the 1980s.

In the past, the UK’s Movement for Reform Judaism required the child of a non-Jewish mother to undergo conversion through its Beth Din.

Now local rabbis can ask the Beth Din to ratify the status of a person without the formalities of conversion.

According to MRJ, this will mean that “individuals who live a Jewish life, and who are patrilineally Jewish, can be welcomed into the Jewish community and confirmed as Jewish through an individual process”.

Although the historic change was backed by most Reform rabbis, some opposed it, believing that conversion was preferable as it offered a central standard of knowledge and observance.

Mr Harris pointed out that his shul has “a pretty active conversion class”. And with two Orthodox, one Reform and one Liberal synagogue in Brighton, there was a real choice for Jews.