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Comments (0)A 13-year-old boy was buried in a special section in Madrid’s Jewish cemetery because he had a Conservative conversion.
Gai Ben-David died last weekend after suffering for years from brain cancer. He was buried Sunday in a section of Madrid’s Jewish cemetery set off by a row of trees and reserved for those whose Jewishness is in question.
Israel’s chief Sephardi rabbi, Shlomo Amar, ruled that since Gai had a non-Jewish mother and was converted by a Conservative rabbi that he should not be buried in the main cemetery. Amar had been asked to rule on the issue by Rabbi Moshe Ben-Dahan, the chief Orthodox rabbi of Madrid.
Gai, of Bogota, Colombia, celebrated his bar mitzvah last June at Congregation Ahavath Shalom in Fort Worth, Texas.
The Rabbinical Assembly, the worldwide association of Conservative and Masorti rabbis, said in a statement that “We are dismayed that this exemplary Jewish boy … was not permitted a burial in the main section of Madrid’s Jewish cemetery, as Rabbi Amar erroneously declared his halachic conversion to be insufficient to bury him where he belongs.
“In Gai’s memory, we remind ourselves that the Jewish People are one people bound together by common history and practice. We therefore not only take great offense at Rabbi Amar’s incorrect and inhumane interpretation of Jewish law, we also abhor this misuse of power that has increased the suffering of a Jewish family grieving the loss of a child.”
Sao Paulo Sets Shoah Remembrance Day
The mayor of Brazil’s largest city approved a Holocaust Remembrance Day beginning next year.
Sao Paulo Mayor Gilberto Kassab signed a measure Monday that sets Jan. 27 as a municipal day to honor Shoah victims. Sao Paulo Municipal Holocaust Remembrance Day will be held for the first time in 2010.
“The Holocaust was a terrible period in the history of humanity,” Kassab told Brazilian media. “This date is our opportunity for the city of Sao Paulo to have a special day of reflection.”
Jewish council member Floriano Pesaro had proposed the bill.
Several Jewish officials attended the announcement, including the presidents of the Holocaust Survivors Brazilian Association, the Latin American Jewish Congress, the Brazilian Israelite Confederation and Sao Paulo State Jewish Federation. At the end of the ceremony, the fourth Chanukah candle was lit.
Sao Paulo is the capital city of Sao Paulo state, which has a 60,000-member Jewish community, or half of Brazil’s Jews.
Israel to Britain: Watch Your Legal System
Israel’s Foreign Ministry called on the British government to stop allowing its legal system to be hijacked for political means.
The call Tuesday came a day after reports that a British court had issued an arrest warrant for opposition leader Tzipi Livni for war crimes at the request of pro-Palestinian activists. The warrant was canceled later when it became clear that Livni had not entered the United Kingdom.
“Israel calls on the British government to fulfill its promises, once and for all, to act in preventing the exploitation of the British legal system by anti-Israel elements against the State of Israel and its citizens,” said a statement released Tuesday by the Foreign Ministry. “The absence of immediate, determined action to correct this abuse harms relations between Britain and Israel.
“If Israeli leaders cannot visit Britain in proper, dignified fashion, this will, quite naturally, seriously compromise Britain’s ability to play the active role in the Middle East peace process that it desires.”
The warrant sought Livni’s arrest on suspicion of war crimes committed during Operation Cast Lead, Israel’s military offensive in Gaza last winter, according to diplomatic sources in London.
Livni had been invited to an event Dec. 13 in north London organized by the Jewish National Fund, then was to hold meetings with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and other government officials.
According to the Israeli Embassy in London, Livni had canceled her visit two weeks before the event due to scheduling problems, and not just days before the event because of the threat of a warrant.