- Halacha
- General Questions
Question
My daughter, who has made aliya and is orthodox has been invited to attend her twin brother’s wedding. The bride was raised as a jew (reform) and her mother was coverted but not by an orthdox rabbi.
Is there any portion of the wedding festivities that my daughter and her husband can attend without violating their orthodox beliefs?
Answer
1. To put things in the right order, it should be made clear that orthodox jewry does not recognize the reform conversion at all, meaning your son is marrying a complete gentile. Since a Jew can't marry a gentile this "wedding" has no meaning and there is no point in your daughter participating.
2. We do not attend such weddings not because of hatred or as a punishment but as a protest and expressing our pain that jewish people are going to disappear into other nations. The short and frightening history of intermarriage within reform communities proves this. Many jewish souls have already been assimilated into other nations, specially in Chutz Laaretz, where they manage to capture many thousands of our brothers in their trap.
3. It may be that this specific girl is a good girl, and will be an exemplar wife and you'll be happy with her, but I suggest the whole family gets together to persuade him and her, for the sake of their love, to make an orthdox conversion. This case would be easier because she was raised as a "jew".
Rabbi Ro'i Margalit