Jewish Unity

1949, just after the establishment of the state of Israel, I heard the voice of David Ben Gurion, first prime minister and first minister of defense. He was on the radio between 7 and 7:30 PM on Yoman Hachadashot, News Journal. I will never forget it. He had come back from a visit to the biggest army camp which there was in Israel at that time, Sarafin, near Ramalah. "I saw there," he said, "the dining room at lunch. All the soldiers sat at the table eating lunch. One soldier stood on the side, not sitting with the others, a loaf of bread in one hand and a tomato in the other. He was eating a piece from the bread and a piece from the tomato. I called him over. I said, 'Are you crazy? Why don't you use a plate, a fork, a knife? Why are you standing? How do you eat like this?' "

"He said, 'I am an observant soldier. I only eat kosher. All the food which is brought here is kosher, but the cutlery, the plates, and the pots are not. In the same pot that they cooked dairy in the morning, they cooked a meat meal for lunch. I can't use anything which is prepared in this kitchen. The bread and the tomato I can eat, but nothing cooked.' "

"I gave an order: All the kitchens of the Israeli Defense Force must be kosher. The same will be in the hospitals and in prison. Why? We are one nation. If there are a thousand soldiers, one observant and nine hundred and ninety-nine liberated, the observant soldier may not eat non-kosher, but the liberated ones may eat kosher. So the kitchen must be kosher. Because we are one nation. We have one army."

This became a law in the IDF until this very day. If there is something not kosher we are to be blamed for it. Maybe the rabbi supervising did not do well. But the orders are strict. All public kitchens must be kosher because one out of a thousand was observant.

I spoke to a group of Members of Knesset. They asked why I insist on halachic conversions. I said, "Aren't you aware of the wholeness of the Jewish People? The unity of our nation? Conversion is the way of entrance to the Jewish family. If you make it halachic, according to Jewish Law, it is accepted by everyone. Thier children can marry my children, and my children can marry thier children because they are converted halachically. All other ways, you can call them whatever; if they are not accepted by the one out of a thousand, create a split in the nation. Is this what you want? To divide the people? To rend it and cut it apart? Or to preserve the wholeness of the people, the unity of Israel? Love of one's fellow Jew. One nation, one family. To ensure the eternity and to ensure the wholeness, and to be loyal to the Torah. What's wrong with that? To ensure that we exist and we are not in a decline, God forbid.

I don't interfere in your synagogues and temples. I do not oversee your prayer book. I do not supervise your meals. If you mix meat and milk, it pains me, but I am not trying to stop you. I have no power to control your behavior. But when we speak about conversion, this is the identity card of our nation. This is the way to enter the Jewish club, the Jewish family, the Jewish nation. There must be one way. This will be the iron bridge. Otherwise it's a paper bridge. We will collapse.

- Rabbi Yisrael Meir Lau
Chief Rabbi of Tel Aviv and Former Chief Rabbi of Israel
in a talk at the Eternal Jewish Family's third national conference
on Adopting Standards for Universally Accepted Conversions in an Intermarriage
in Boston MA on October 30, 2006.