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June 18, 2004/Sivan 29 5764, Vol. 56, No.39
'Who is a Jew?'
DAN BARON
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
TEL AVIV - King Solomon himself might have been vexed by this battle over an Israeli baby claimed by two sets of parents.
The plaintiffs in Tel Aviv District Court are a young couple that regretted giving up their child for adoption. The defendants are the adoptive parents, who have no intention of returning the 13-month-old boy.
A recent revelation could overturn the entire case by tapping into the issue of Jewish identity.
On June 14, the attorney for the plaintiffs revealed that the baby is not technically Jewish, which could retroactively invalidate the adoption. According to Israel's 1981 adoption law, children may be adopted only by guardians of the same religion.
"Many questions arise from this case," said Dean Adani, attorney for the plaintiffs. "We spoke with religious authorities who have told us that the way the social services allow couples to adopt children of a different religion is against the law and is something that needs to be changed."
But the biological mother, a Christian who emigrated from Romania with her Jewish husband under Israel's Law of Return, may herself have sealed the child's fate by requesting, upon giving him up for adoption, that he be raised as a Jew.
Israeli media on June 15 said the boy was circumcised and his adoptive parents are religiously observant. That prompted Israel's Ashkenazic chief rabbi, Yona Metzger, to suggest that a de facto conversion may have taken place.
"According to Jewish law, a mother does not have the right to give up her son," Metzger said at a Jerusalem ceremony for swearing in new judges. "But given that in this case a Christian mother has made clear her assent that her son should undergo a process of conversion to Judaism, the matter is ambiguous. If the boy's conversion has indeed been completed and in accordance with Jewish law, the mother has no more claim on her son."
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