J7: Chosen People

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Brother Daniel

In 1959, a person arrives at the port of Haifa, Israel and requests that he be registered as a citizen from the State of Israel. His claim is base on the Law of return, which states that any Jew has the right to become an immediate citizen of the State. The clerk at the port begins to process the claim - it all looks terribly straight forward. The person's name is Oswald Rufeizin and he was born to Jewish parents in Poland in 1922. And he has the papers to prove it. The clerk stamps the word "Jewish" by the word "nationality" in his application and hands him the papers. The man gets up to leave and the clerk gets the fright of her life. Given the numbers of people that she had dealt with and the pressures of work, she had hardly the opportunity to look at Oswald. She does now. In fact, she can hardly stop looking at him. The person whose official papers now said the word Jew, and who had now become an Israeli citizen based on that fact, was actually wearing the clothes of a Catholic priest! Hurriedly she calls him back. Now she is excited and nervous - her job was on the line:

"Did I not just stamp the word Jew on your papers?"

"Yes!"

"Do you want to be a citizen of Israel based on the Law of Return"

"Yes!"

"But you are wearing the robes of a Catholic priest!"

"That's because I am a Catholic priest!"

Brother Daniel was born to Jewish parents and educated as a Jew. In his youth he was active in Zionist youth movements whilst in Poland and was captured by the Gestapo in 1941. He escaped and carried on his life as an interpreter in a Police station in the Russian city of Mir, all along pretending to be a non-Jewish German. Indeed he used his privileges position to ensure the escape of hundred of Jews from the ghetto in Mir, once German intentions for the ghetto became clear. He was eventually caught for these activities, but escaped again, this time finding refuge in a Monastery. He joined the partisans at the first opportunity and after the war was decorated for his underground activities. In 1942, whilst still in the monastery, he decided to convert. This was out of his own free choice, and in 1945 decided to take Monastic vows. He chose to join a Carmelite monastery and finally decided to join their order in Israel in 1958.

""I know I'm a catholic priest, but I was born a Jew. That means that technically I'm a Jew and thus have rights under the law of return. 'Once a Jew, always a Jew'. I may be a bad Jew, but I'm a Jew nonetheless. It's a part of me, just like I have legs, ears and eyes. I suppose that you can't deny that!"

"Yes, but you are a Catholic priest!"

"Look, you are not making religious decisions. I want to be an Israeli citizen and you are only asked to decide my nationality. Just write the word Jew. I have Jewish parents and I have contributed greatly to Jewish causes during the war."

"Being Jewish is not just a fact but depends on your won personal feelings. You clearly do not consider yourself to be a Jew"

"I have not ignored my Jewish cultural heritage and still delight in my Jewish culture. I have a different religious faith. How can deny me my rights as a Jew?"

The case of Brother Daniel vs. the state of Israel went to the High Court in 1958. What do you think?

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