特朗普的女儿在美国皈依犹太教

JERUSALEM — Critics of Israel’s chief rabbinate have long complained that scores of U.S. converts to Judaism have trouble getting approval to marry in Israel. Now, one such case with a celebrity connection could break open the rabbinate’s long-standing secrecy over which foreign rabbis are approved to conduct conversions.

耶路撒冷——长期以来，以色列大拉比的批评者一直抱怨很多改信犹太教的美国人很难在以色列获准结婚。现在，有一个牵涉名人的此类案例，可能会破解大拉比制度下长期以来关于哪些外国拉比可以获准主持皈依仪式的秘密。

The case involves an American who, shortly after her Orthodox conversion in New York, became engaged to an Israeli, only to have the local rabbinical court in his hometown reject her status as a Jew when they tried to register for marriage.

在这个案例中，一位美国人在纽约皈依犹太教正统派后不久，与一名以色列人订婚，不过当他们准备登记结婚时，她的犹太身份却遭到男方家乡的一个地方拉比法庭否认。

As it turns out, the rabbi who signed the woman’s conversion certificate also converted Donald Trump’s daughter Ivanka, and officiated at her 2009 wedding to Jared Kushner, the newspaper publisher now planning the presumptive Republican nominee’s potential transition to the White House.

给这位女士签发皈依证书的拉比也曾主持唐纳德·特朗普(Donald Trump)的女儿伊万卡(Ivanka)的皈依仪式，并在2009年主持她与报纸出版人贾里德·库什纳(Jared Kushner)的婚礼。库什纳目前正在帮助稳获共和党提名的总统候选人进军白宫。

The rabbi, Haskel Lookstein, is one of the most respected Orthodox rabbis in New York, where he has for 58 years led Manhattan’s Congregation Kehilath Jeshurun, after taking over the pulpit from his father. He recently received an honorary doctorate from Israel’s Bar-Ilan University in recognition for what it called “the influential role he has played in deepening Jewish values and heritage among American Jewry.”

哈斯克尔·卢克斯坦(Haskel Lookstein)是纽约最受尊敬的正统派拉比之一，继承父亲的神职之后，领导曼哈顿的Kehilath Jeshurun犹太会堂长达58年之久。前不久，以色列的巴尔伊兰大学(Bar-Ilan University)为了表彰“他在深化美国犹太人的犹太价值观和传统方面发挥了有影响力的作用”，授予他荣誉博士学位。

The case raises the question of whether Ivanka Trump — who said in a Vogue magazine interview last year that she and her husband were “pretty observant,” keeping kosher and the Jewish Sabbath — would be accepted as Jewish herself in all quarters in Israel.

这个事件引发了人们关于伊万卡·特朗普(Ivanka Trump)的犹太人身份能否在以色列全境获得认可的怀疑。去年，她在接受《Vogue》杂志采访时表示，她和丈夫“严格遵守”教规，持守犹太洁食和安息日规定。

More broadly, it illustrates a growing divide between Israel’s increasingly strict ultra-Orthodox religious establishment and many Jews abroad over the age-old question of “who is a Jew” that has complicated Israel’s relationship with the diaspora for decades.

在更广层面上，它反映出以色列日益严格的极端正统派宗教权威与国外很多犹太人对于“谁是犹太人”这个古老问题日益严重的分歧。在过去几十年里，这个问题让以色列与犹太侨民之间的关系变得复杂。

The Israeli rabbinate, which controls Jewish marriage and most Jewish burial sites in the country, does not recognize non-Orthodox streams of Judaism like Reform and Conservative, with which the majority of affiliated U.S. Jews identify. In rejecting Lookstein’s conversion and those of others in similar positions, the rabbinical authorities now risk alienating Jews abroad who practice modern Orthodoxy according to Halakha, or Jewish law.

以色列拉比掌管犹太婚姻以及该国的大部分犹太墓地，他们不认可非正统派犹太教分支，比如改革派和保守派——美国的大部分犹太人都属于这些非正统派分支。以色列拉比拒绝承认卢克斯坦以及其他具有类似地位的拉比签发的皈依证书，因此有可能疏远国外的那些按照犹太律法执行现代正统派教规的犹太人。

“Ten years ago, if an Orthodox rabbi in good standing performed a conversion, it would have been a given that it would be accepted here,” said Rabbi Seth Farber, the founder of Itim, an Israeli organization that has been critical of the rabbinate and is pressing the case of Lookstein’s U.S. convert.

“10年前，如果是一名地位稳固的正统派拉比主持的皈依，人们肯定认为它在这里是会被接受的，”对犹太大拉比持批评态度的以色列组织Itim的创始人塞思·法伯拉比(Seth Farber)说。该组织正在为卢克斯坦的美国皈依者奔走。

He added, “I’d say this is unprecedented in Jewish history, that one group of rabbis rejects another.”

他补充说：“我得说，这在犹太历史上是前所未有的——一个拉比团体否定另一个拉比团体。”

Itim handles up to 150 cases a year of modern-Orthodox converts from the United States who are struggling to get married in Israel or are experiencing other issues with the religious establishment. As Farber put it, “Almost everyone has problems nowadays.”

Itim每年处理多达150起类似案件——美国现代正统派犹太教皈依者在以色列争取婚姻权或经历其他与宗教权威相关的难题。按法伯的说法，“如今，几乎每个人都遇到问题。”

The U.S. convert, who is appealing her case to Israel’s supreme rabbinical court, declined to be interviewed, and the rabbis discussed her situation on the condition that she not be identified in order to protect her privacy.

那名改信犹太教的美国女性正把自己的案件上诉至以色列最高拉比法庭。她拒绝接受采访。为了保护她的隐私，拉比们讨论她的情况时都避免暴露她的身份。

Her supporters said she converted just over a year ago, after about a year of study, and soon met the man who would become her fiancé in Petah Tikva, a bedroom community near Tel Aviv. The rabbinical court there first ruled in April that her conversion was invalid.

她的支持者称，她在一年前刚改信犹太教，之前学习了一年左右，然后很快在特拉维夫附近的城郊住宅区佩塔提克瓦遇见了后来成为她未婚夫的男人。今年4月，当地的拉比法庭首次判决她皈依无效。

After a preliminary hearing in the supreme rabbinical court in Jerusalem, Rabbi Itamar Tubul, the director of the chief rabbinate’s department of personal status and conversion, wrote a letter to the Petah Tikva court saying that the conversion certificate signed by Lookstein was “approved by the chief rabbinate of Israel.” (Two other Kehilath Jeshurun rabbis also signed the certificate.)

在耶路撒冷最高拉比法庭的初步听证会之后，大拉比的个人身份和皈依部主管伊塔马尔·图布勒拉比(Itamar Tubul)给佩塔提克瓦法院写信表示，卢克斯坦签发的皈依证书是“经过以色列大拉比批准的”（Kehilath Jeshurun犹太会堂的另外两名拉比也在这份证书上签了字）。

But the Petah Tikva court issued a second ruling against the conversion June 8, saying it had found no mention of Lookstein on its lists of approved rabbis.

但在6月8日，佩塔提克瓦法院再次判决这一皈依无效，称它没有在自己的获准拉比名单上看到卢克斯坦的名字。

Lookstein, 84, is now in an emeritus position at Kehilath Jeshurun, which has a membership of 1,100 families, and is considered one of the most established and mainstream Orthodox rabbis in America.

84岁的卢克斯坦目前是Kehilath Jeshurun犹太会堂的荣退拉比，他被认为是美国最权威、最主流的正统派拉比之一。该会堂的会众包括1100个家庭。

In a telephone interview, he said this case was a first for him, though he was not aware of anyone else who had been converted by him or his colleagues at Kehilath Jeshurun who then tried to marry in Israel.

卢克斯坦在接受电话采访时称，他首次遇到这样的案例，不过他并不知道是否还有经他自己或Kehilath Jeshurun犹太会堂其他同事之手皈依犹太教的人曾尝试在以色列结婚。

“The irony is that this woman is very meticulous about her religious observance,” Lookstein said. “She is as Jewish as I am, and as Jewish as the rabbis signed on the certificate, except in the eyes of the Petah Tikva rabbinate.”

“讽刺的是，这位女士一丝不苟地遵守犹太教规，”卢克斯坦说，“从犹太教身份的角度讲，她和我以及其他在证书上签字的拉比是一样的，只有佩塔提克瓦的拉比不这么认为。”

“The bottom line,” he added, “is that the rabbinate in Israel is not respecting and honoring the work of the Orthodox rabbinate in America on conversion.”

“其实是，”他补充说，“以色列拉比不尊重和承认美国正统派拉比主持的皈依。”

Lookstein said he expected that the woman would ultimately win her appeal and be able to marry in Israel. “But the battle is taking so much out of this woman and causing such pain at a time when she should be happiest in her life,” he lamented, adding that the Petah Tikva rabbis were perpetrating “a terrible sin” because “the Torah is very explicit that a convert should be treated with love and never afflicted.”

卢克斯坦说，他希望那位女士能最终赢得上诉，可以在以色列结婚。“但是，这场战斗耗费这位女士这么多精力，给她一生中本该最快乐的时光带来巨大痛苦，”他叹息道。他还表示，佩塔提克瓦的拉比正犯下“严重的罪孽”，因为“《托拉》(Torah)明确指出，应该用爱对待皈依者，永不折磨他们”。