Yonatan Fein's mother was the poet Zerubavela Fein, Penn's eldest daughter, from his first marriage to Bella Don. His wife, Ruth, teaches Spanish literature at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. The couple has two sons: Miki is in a seaman's course in the Israel Navy, Danny is a senior in high school. The family lives in Jerusalem 's French Hill neighborhood.

Fein teaches at the IDC Herzliya's Lauder School of Government, Diplomacy and Strategy and is a research fellow with the college's Institute for Counter-Terrorism. He was born in Tel Aviv in 1958. Prior to sixth grade, he knew nothing about his famous grandfather. While visiting friends, he was asked about him and the question prompted Fein to request information from his mother. "I knew Penn only a short while as a child; he died before I reached bar-mitzvah," recalls Fein. "My parents didn't want to mix me up during my early childhood, so they waited until I was a little older before giving me an explanation of my rather complicated family constellation."

After divorcing Penn, Fein's grandmother Bella Don married Tel Aviv building contractor Israel Shashonkin. His grandmother's family were among the founders of Hadera and Balfouria. "Meir Shalev's 'The Blue Mountain' opens with a woman who lives in the Jezreel Valley and who dies, with a book of Russian poetry resting on her bosom," says Fein. "That story about my grandmother's own grandmother circulated for years in our family."

His mother, Zerubavela Fein, who published several books of poetry, was one of Tel Aviv's beauties. She graduated in 1948, after the Israeli War of Independence broke out, from the Herzliya Gymnasia high school. Netiva Ben Yehuda was one of her classmates. Zerubavela served in the Haganah, the Jewish underground in pre-1948 Palestine , as a courier. ("She transmitted, hidden in one of her boots, a note with the order to detonate the explosives on the "Night of the Bridges," he recounts.) During the War of Independence, she performed in the Hishatron, Israel 's first army troupe, together with Yaffa Yarkoni and Tuli Raviv. Shortly after the fighting ended, Zerubavela appeared in one of the first Israeli movies, "48 Hours," which depicted the wartime siege of Jerusalem .

Zerubavela's first marriage collapsed and she subsequently met Yonatan's father, Bernard Fein, an American Jew who for a while was a member of Lehi (another Jewish underground army in pre-1948 Palestine ). "He was the complete antithesis to the War of Independence generation," recalls Fein. His father died in 1997 and his mother passed away two years ago.

Truth or fiction?

Alexander Penn had a unique, almost mythical, biography. He was born in Russia in 1906 to a Jewish father and a gentile, Swedish-born, mother, who died shortly after his birth. He was raised by his grandfather, who was a bear-hunter. When he was 10, his grandfather was killed in a hunting accident; apparently, a bear fatally wounded him. All alone, Penn began wandering through Russia . After several years with juvenile gangs, he eventually reached his father's home in Moscow . He began writing poetry in 1920, becoming friends with several celebrated Russian poets, including Vladimir Mayakovsky and Boris Pasternak.

In 1927, Penn arrived in Palestine (after serving a sentence in a Russian prison for the crime of being a Zionist). He lived in Tel Aviv, wrote poetry, worked in construction and in Rehovot's orchards, and trained boxers. He began writing poems in Hebrew and published them, encouraged to do so by Haim Nahman Bialik and Avraham Shlonsky. Penn was a diabetic and, in the last years of his life, one leg and the foot of the other were amputated. He died in 1972 and was buried in the writers' section of Tel Aviv's Kiryat Shaul Cemetery .

"Regarding his biography," says Fein, "nobody knows to this day what he really did or didn't do in Russia . As far as the story about the bear is concerned, my mother believed it was true because people always tell the truth on their deathbed: In hospital, he kept asking to be rescued because a bear was going to attack him. Apparently, he really did experience such a trauma. The story about his wandering for years by himself in the forests is also true, because it was a period when children wandered about the countryside between wars. However, his greatest trauma was the fact that he grew up without a mother. His most powerful poems are about being deprived of a mother's love."

Fein has little contact with Penn's other daughters - Ilana Rovina, daughter of Penn and Hannah Rovina, and Sinilga, Penn's youngest daughter from his marriage to Rachel.

How does his family relate to the myths about Penn and his love of alcohol and women?

"There are many myths," admits Fein, "I assume that many women imagined themselves spending the night in his home. However, the really juicy story concerns Hannah Rovina; at the time she was 40 and he was 30. She was the diva of the country's theater world and he was a handsome poet.

"He was not a family person in the classic sense; he was an artist who was focused on himself and his art most of the time. Sinilga recalls that her home was not an easy place to grow up in. There are many stories about him - some true, others not - but, in the final analysis, he was an excellent poet."

Penn was an ardent Communist and, because of his political views, was barred from the political establishment, ruled then by the Mapai party, Labor's predecessor. "Before his death, he asked that he be remembered as a Hebrew poet," says Fein. "He was unjustly treated and was boycotted because of politics. The song 'The earth, my earth' would sometimes appear with the following credits: 'Music: Mordechai Zeira. Lyrics: A popular folk song.' Nonetheless, everyone knew who wrote the lyrics. How many people today know that it was Penn, not [Nathan] Alterman, who launched 'The Seventh Column' in the Labor daily, Davar? Alexander Penn wrote the first political satire in the Israeli press on life in this country, the first 'Eretz Nehederet' ('What a Wonderful Country') [now a program on Israel Television's Channel 2].

"My political views are very different from what his were and I imagine that, were he alive today, we would have many a bitter argument. But do political differences justify a boycott on his writings? I really believe he loved this country very much."

A real puzzler is the fact that the grandson of Penn the Communist is a rabbi. "Penn was deeply religious," observes Fein, "certainly as far as his own ideology was concerned. I think that, of all people, he would be the first to understand my religiosity. Besides, Penn's father was a rabbi who abandoned the Orthodox Jewish way of life and who was a member of the Jewish Enlightenment generation."

Uri Zohar and the war

Fein's path to Judaism began in 1980, when he traveled to the U.S. to be a counselor in a Reform summer camp in Los Angeles , soon after his discharge from the army. "My encounter with the children of Beverly Hills ' well-to-do - one of them was Dustin Hoffman's youngest son - was both bizarre and entertaining," he recalls.

"Although I handled my group of campers like a platoon in the Golani Brigade, they quickly showed me that they knew much more about Judaism than I did. I grew up in a cultured home - not just Penn - and I received the best Labor Zionist education possible. However, when I stood there like an idiot in this summer camp at my first Friday night ceremony and didn't understand what was going on, I realized that something was seriously missing in my Zionist upbringing."

He returned to Israel , and, parallel to his undergraduate studies in history and Israeli history at the Hebrew University , he began frequenting Orthodox yeshivot in Jerusalem . "That is when I began meeting all the missionaries," he recollects. "I decided I would see Uri Zohar. He was once married to my aunt, Ilana Rovina. I phoned him and he immediately knew who I was. My mother had always said he was brilliant. I met him and his wife. Although he didn't try to turn me into an Orthodox Jew, he did say I had a Jewish soul."

Another incident ignited a spark of religious faith in his heart. Fein fought in the first Lebanon War as a reservist (as an inducted soldier, he served with the Golani Brigade's elite Sayeret Orev reconnaissance unit). He saw action in the eastern sector and then in Tyre , Sidon and Nabatiyeh. He took a siddur (prayerbook) with him to the war. Israel Shashonkin, his grandmother's second husband, had given it to him.

"This siddur rested in the cupboard until I began taking an interest in Judaism. Before setting out for my reserve duty in Lebanon in November 1983, I decided that I would take it along with me - to be on the safe side. Before we went on patrol, I prayed for the first time in my life since my bar-mitzvah. I recited Tefillat Haderech (The Traveler's Prayer). Then I placed the siddur inside my flak jacket and we set out for our morning patrol. What happened was that we went over a roadside bomb that didn't go off. I considered that a miracle. Many people would look at the incident differently - they would say that it was a question of statistics or luck.

"I saw many kibbutzniks from the [Socialist Zionist] Hashomer Hatzair youth movement putting on tefillin before going through the Good Fence and you could say that this was a natural reaction to fear. However, what I experienced really excited me. I strongly believe in Providence - not the God of the philosophers or [Baruch] Spinoza. Either you have this belief or you don't. This is something that can't be explained."

Fein registered for the Jewish studies course offered by Jerusalem 's Schechter Institute of Jewish Studies. His first encounter with Schechter was bizarre. Most of the other students were from a religious background or knew something about Judaism. Fein, the only one there who was a secular Jew from Tel Aviv, was considered odd. "I felt I always had to be on the defensive. The heads of the [Conservative] movement were pretty closed inside their inner American circles and didn't really understand the Israeli reality. I came along with all my Israeli heritage and, obviously, a head-on collision resulted."

Why didn't you choose Reform Judaism?
"Right from the beginning, I accepted Conservative Judaism's logic - it's a complex Golden Mean, which isn't easy to explain or market. The Reform concept of total autonomy is terrific but hard to apply at the personal level, while Orthodoxy is dogmatic and unprepared to accept change. Only the Conservative Movement is in the middle of this conflict between, on the one hand, commitment to tradition and to the spirit of the halacha (Jewish law) and, on the other hand, two things without which it is hard to live in the modern world: change and historical criticism."

Unwilling to commit suicide

In 1995, Fein took another direction and began working as a consultant on strategic matters to the defense establishment. "I was curious to know how decisions are made in the inner circle and how the international system works," he explains.

Unlike other Conservative rabbis, his Weltanschauung prioritizes Israel 's national security. "When I traveled around the world, visiting South America, the United States and Europe , I saw expressions of anti-Semitism that changed my thinking.

"For some people the problem is not the 1967 borders but rather Israel 's very existence. I'm no extremist - neither a Likudnik nor a member of Yesh Gvul [movement opposing military service beyond the Green Line]. I consider myself a realistic Mapainik - speak when you must, kill when you must. I'm no war-monger but I'm also no 'vegetarian.' I don't think 'vegetarians' belong in this region. I'm certainly prepared to reach a peace settlement with the Palestinians. I don't need Gaza or the West Bank , but I'm not prepared to compromise on national security. I live in French Hill and 12 terrorist acts occurred there in recent years. I'm not ready to commit suicide for the Palestinians."

Fein has published short stories in "Iton 77" and "Moznayim." He has written three books: a collection of short stories, "Mario ratz rahok" (Hakibbutz Hameuchad, 2001), many of which deal with the Lebanon War and Israeli history; a novel, "Vehagdola shebahen ahava" (Astrolog, 2003), inspired by the life of his grandmother, Bella Don; and a second novel, "Al shelosha gesharim" (Carmel, 2005), which deals with the Israeli reality and links up the Second World War, the Israeli War of Independence and the Lebanon War.

He returned for a second round at the Schechter Institute in 2004, this time for its rabbinical ordination course. He was ordained two weeks ago. At least judging from his outward appearance, Fein does not look like a rabbi: He has no beard and wears no kippa. However, he does observe the Sabbath and kashrut and puts on tefillin every weekday.

He seems to belong to the Conservative Movement's more liberal wing. For example, he favors playing music in the synagogue on the Sabbath. And he supports the latest decision of the movement's Committee on Jewish Law and Standards, which permits rabbinical ordination of homosexuals. "The halacha's position on homosexual intercourse is clear but historically the position was rooted in an opposition to idolatry's customs, such as homosexual intercourse and the libation of wine," observes Fein. "Homosexual intercourse in ancient times is not equivalent to the homosexual relations we see today, which are characterized by love and conjugality, but rather was sexual relations under coercion, like sodomy or the rape of minors. This is what the Torah opposed. There is a moral problem in barring people or not allowing them to do something because of their sexual preferences."

Fein has no intention of becoming a congregational rabbi. He wants to teach Judaism and Israeli history: "In my opinion, the American Protestant congregational model that the Jews adopted is unsuited to Israeli society. Israel is small and crowded and Israelis don't need more communities. What is much more suitable today is learning centers, like the Schechter Institute.

"My target population is the secular Jewish community, which Mapai abandoned. We secular Jews were given no Jewish education and were prevented from getting to know about alternatives like Reform or Conservative Judaism. The idea was that you either adopted the Orthodox path or remained an ignoramus - that's the situation Orthodoxy wants to perpetuate. In my eyes, rabbis shouldn't be aloof and shouldn't deal solely with the weekly Torah reading. They must know what's going on around them and must be up-to-date on the Iranian issue and the conflict with the Palestinians. Rabbis in Israel should be involved in what is going on here."