Shabbos goy' of 30 years found to be Jewish

 

A man who served as a "Shabbos goy' (a non-Jew who can perform acts that are forbidden to Jews on Shabbat) for a Jewish community for 30 years turned out to have been Jewish all along. Arutz Sheva - Israel National News has learned that the man's children provided proof of his Jewish ancestry as part of a request that he be buried in a Jewish cemetery.

Rabbi Eliyahu Maimon, the head of the Aguna department in the rabbinical courts, said: "The hevra kadisha (burial society) contacted us and we investigated and found that he was indeed a Jewish person. Jews from all countries of the world - 101 countries - immigrate to the State of Israel out of necessity under the Law of Return."

"There are regions, such as Eastern Europe, the countries of the former Commonwealth, and India, where there were no systems that know how to monitor and decide on who is Jewish and who is not. By the way, the inquiry is usually conducted not for the purpose of burial, but for the purpose of marriage. It should be emphasized that this is an easy, accessible, and free process when on average, the inquiry ends after 30 days, and over 97% of those who contact us as part of an inquiry are indeed found to be Jewish," Rabbi Maimon said.

"In this case, the person was registered as a Jew, but that particular community, for its own reasons, claimed that he was a gentile. The hevra kadisha did not want to bury him as a Jew, because they thought he was, as stated, a gentile. His family insisted on this and we investigated, through all kinds of documents. You have to understand that many states have documents that can be used to verify a person's Jewish status, such as birth certificates, schools, etc. In addition, we are collecting evidence, like genetic tests, that have helped us in the process in recent years. In this case, the documents showed quite clearly that the person was Jewish, and we didn't require any more proof.

The rabbi summed up the unusual case and said: "In the end, the same Jew was buried in the community's Jewish cemetery, with the help of the tests we performed. By the way, many times people also come to us whose ID card does not say they are Jewish, but our test shows that they are, and vice versa."

"As far as the State of Israel is concerned, the Interior Ministry relies on the [standard of the] Law of Return, and many times this is not enough for the purpose of ascertaining the Jewishness of the applicant. We are very interested in the branch of the person's mother, and not the father's, as is customary in Israeli tradition," he said.