CONVERSION AND CHURCH MEMBERSHIP Solomon B. Freehof

QUESTION: A man wanting to marry a Jewess is willing to go through conversion and join the Jewish congregation, but wishes neveriheless to remain a member of the Christian congregation. What should be the attitude of the Jewish congregation?(Rabbi S. Andhil Fineberg, Mount Vernon , New York .)*

ANSWER: The very fact that such a question arises every now and then these days is an evidence of the modern mood in which sharp distinction between religious groups and traditions tends to grow vague. We Jews , for example, are now accustomed to the thought of having a Jew belong to three or four congregations, each of a different attitude in Judaism . In many cities a man will belong to an Orthodox , a Modern Orthodox, a Conservative , and a Reform congregation. This practice is deemed quite proper and even praiseworthy.

Yet the idea would have been ludicrous a generation or two ago. The responsa of the rabbis of Hungary and Galicia discuss whether Orthodox Jews should associate with the Reformers even in charity, or even whether Orthodox should associate with what might today be called semi-modern Orthodox , the group known in

Hungary for historical reasons as the"Status Quo." These"Status Quo" organizations were strictly Orthodox , but the question arose whether one could eat of the Shehita of the Status Quo Shohet. Possibly it is to the good that the sense of denominational separation has weakened among the Jews . But should we likewise consider it praiseworthy if religious separateness ceases to be sharp between Jews and Christians? And could we contemplate, without disapproval, Jews and Christians belonging to each others congregations as well as to their own?