Religion: Young Lawgiver

Until 21 months ago, being a Jew in Berlin was hell-on-earth. Now Berlin Jews are entitled to more food than Gentiles; they also have a better chance of getting coveted visas to the U.S. So a number of German Gentiles, looking at the situation practically, have suddenly seen the wisdom of being converted to the Jewish faith.

How many of these Germans sincerely want to become converts? The question has implications that would give a patriarch pause—and the slight, dark-haired U.S. Jewish chaplain who has to give the answers is no patriarch. But whether he likes it or not, Lieut. Mayer Abramowitz, 27, Jewish U.S. Army chaplain in Berlin, is ex officio chief rabbi of the city.

Born in Palestine and schooled in Manhattan, Chaplain Abramowitz has seen his people’s problems in several lights. The knotty decisions his position forces him to make weigh heavily on his inexperienced shoulders. Last week, doing the best he knew how, he had taken a firm stand and was defending it with dignity.

Lieut. Abramowitz turned away all would-be converts, sincere or not. His stock answer to suppliants was: “Wait until the Jews have their own chief rabbi here. Let him decide.” He explained, without bitterness, that his motive was not a projection of the “eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth” doctrine. The Jews were too much hurt, he says. Along with other rabbis and chaplains he feels that the time is not yet ripe for Germans to be admitted into the Jewish faith.

The young chaplain has another hard responsibility which he considers a corollary of his first one. Under the Army’s relaxed rules for U.S.-German marriages, a G.I. must first get a chaplain’s sanction.

Fourteen Jewish G.I.s have come to Lieut. Abramowitz for permission to marry Fraulein. Rejecting every application, he has explained:

“Before I approve such a marriage I must be convinced that the anti-Semitic German nurtured by the Nazis has been eradicated from Germany. . . . That time is not here. I’ve heard Jewish G.I.s, who have come to me wanting sanction to marry Germans, state sharply critical opinions . . which sounded like the Nazi line.”

Realizing full well that circumstances have put overwhelming power in his hands —and realizing, too, that his stand lays him open to the charge that he is merely inverting Nazi racial prejudice—Rabbi Abramowitz does not ban marriages outright. “I don’t want to decide on another fellow’s life,” he says. After talking it over with the couple, he advises them to seek out some other chaplain who will grant permission—if one can be found.