A Jew No More

A Roman Catholic cannot be a Jew, the Israeli Supreme Court ruled last week. Before the, court was the case of Father Daniel, a Polish-born Jew who was converted to Catholicism and became a Carmelite friar (TIME, Dec. 7). He had claimed Israeli citizenship under provisions of the country's Law of Return, which declares: "Every Jew shall be entitled to come to Israel as an immigrant." Speaking for the court, Judge Moshe Silberg expressed deep sympathy for Father Daniel's desire to "identify himself with the people he loves," and suggested that the priest might still be considered a Jew as the term is understood in rabbinical courts. But the Law of Return, he added, is secular legislation, and must be interpreted according to secular principles: "The question is what is the ordinary Jewish meaning of the term Jew, and does it include an apostate."

Said the judge: "From the extreme Orthodox to complete freethinkers, there is one thing common to all people who dwell in Zion: we do not sever ourselves from the historic past and we do not deny the heritage of our forefathers." There are some "differences of nuance and approach" among Jewish thinkers, but "the lowest common denominator is that no one can regard an apostate as belonging to the Jewish people."

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