Judge bars mitzvah
COMMUNITY opinion has been left divided after a judge ruled on the right of three halahically Jewish children to decide for themselves whether to undergo bar and bat mitzvah ceremonies.
COMMUNITY opinion has been left divided after a judge ruled on the right of three halahically Jewish children to decide for themselves whether to undergo bar and bat mitzvah ceremonies.
Federal Magistrate Terry McGuire found in favour of a Catholic father who requested an injunction preventing the three children marking their Jewish rite of passage, despite their Jewish mother’s wish.
In joint custody of their separated parents, Federal Magistrate McGuire agreed with their father that the 10-year-old boy and eight-year-old twin girls should choose whether they wish to celebrate their bar and bat mitzvahs “when they are sufficiently mature to make an informed and voluntary choice”.
The Melbourne couple have raised their children to be aware of Jewish traditions: their son is circumcised and until recently, all three attended after-school Jewish classes.
Whether the judge made the right decision was hotly debated after the ruling was made public on Wednesday.
“This is a most unfortunate decision,” executive director of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry Peter Wertheim told The AJN. “Having a bar mitzvah or bat mitzvah would not stop the children from making their own religious choices as adults.”
Expansive in his ruling, the judge stipulated that the children were still entitled to spend Jewish holidays with their mother and Christmas and Easter with their father.
Despite the father’s hesitations over its political content, the judge also ruled that the children could continue attending a Jewish youth group on a fortnightly basis.
“The evidence suggests to me that the father’s quest for the children to receive a basic understanding of each religion to allow them to make an informed and mature choice is in part achieved by them attending a children’s youth group,” Federal Magistrate McGuire said.
Rabbi Motty Liberow, who runs Melbourne’s after-school Lamdeni Hebrew school with his wife, said they have worked with a number of families where only one parent is Jewish, in most instances, the mother.
“In most cases, I remember, the father was very encouraging. In fact, in many cases, I remember the fathers taking the leading role to encourage the child to embrace the Jewish learning.”
Asked about this specific situation, Rabbi Liberow said “it very much depends on how these children will be raised between now and their bar or bat mitzvah”.
“It’s about them having a solid identity and wanting to chose … about how they are brought up to feel.”
President of the Rabbinical Council of Victoria, Rabbi Yaakov Glasman said the courts decision can be considered “inconsequential”.
“Halachically, Jewish boys and girls become bar or bat mitzvah at 13 or 12 irrespective of whether they undergo any formal procession at the synagogue or not. This is their birthright,” he said. “However, the notion of banning a child from being able to fully experience this important milestone in their Jewish lives is something many will find quite distasteful.”
DALIA SABLE
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