> On Feb 25, 5:17 pm, Jerry Friedman <jerry_fried...@yahoo.com> wrote: >> On Feb 25, 2:08 pm, Yusuf B Gursey <y...@theworld.com> wrote:> On Feb 25, 12:04 pm, Evan Kirshenbaum <kirshenb...@hpl.hp.com> wrote: >> >> ... >> >> > > Note that there have been claims in the past. The Baal Shem >> > > Tov in the 18th century, Shabtey Zvi in the 17th. The >> > > Lubavitcher Rebbe >> >> > the Sabteists were forcibly converted to Islam, but retained >> > their practices in private. recently one wanted
I didn't expect to see "Sabbatean" (or similar) and "recently" in the same sentence. I didn't think they lasted much past the early eighteenth century. I see on Wikipedia that there's a group, called the "Dönmeh", who are openly Muslim but Crypto-Jewish messianists.
>> > to be recognized officially as a Jew in Turkey (where one's >> > religion is registered), but the Chief Rabbi of Turkey refused >> > the recognition, and thus she couldn't change her papers. >> >> What was the reason--her matrilineal Jewish ancestry wasn't >> documented? > > the reason was that the Chief Rabbi doesn't consider Sabbateans as > Jewish.
I don't know what the politics of it are in Turkey, but I have to wonder whether (besides the views of his own group), he didn't want the political hassles of being seen as encouraging officially Muslim citizens to renounce Islam.
As an aside, I have to say that the notion of a particular rabbi having the power to make such official decisions on behalf of anybody but his own followers strikes me as odd and, frankly, un-Jewish. (I know that it happens in Israel, too. It strikes me as odd there, as well.)
-- Evan Kirshenbaum +------------------------------------ HP Laboratories |"Revolution" has many definitions. 1501 Page Mill Road, 1U, MS 1141 |From the looks of this, I'd say Palo Alto, CA 94304 |"going around in circles" comes |closest to applying... kirshenbaum@hpl.hp.com | Richard M. Hartman (650)857-7572
