[Avodah] [Areivim] upcoming C 'psaks'

[Zev Sero]

On Areivim, Daniel Israel wrote:

>> And may someone adopted by Jews and converted to
>> Judaism as a child be able to be called by the adopted parents’ names, 
>> or must he or she always be called to the Torah as a descendant of 
>> Abraham and Sarah?


> Actually, having despaired of finding this in the SA, and not having a 
> t'shuvah collection, I took a quick look in some popular English works 
> that I thought might be likely to address it.  Sure enough, R' Donin 
> says that it is mutar, but doesn't give a source.  Does anyone know of a 
> source one way or the other?  I can't imagine the shaila hasn't been 
> asked already.

I haven't seen anything written, but the practise as I have seen it,
both for adopted children and for gerim with Jewish bio-fathers, is
to call them up by their father's name, because of kavod habriot.

I know of no halacha that requires a person to be called to the Torah
by name at all, let alone specifying the form.  AFAIK one may call
someone in any way that will identify him and let him know to come up,
all the way from using the surname to "you in the back".  Indeed there
are shuls where people are *not* called by name but as "yaamod shelishi",
"yaamod revi'i", etc., the relevant people having been privately
notified in advance.  (There are also shuls where the names are all
publicly announced before kohen, and then before each aliya they are
called without names, but that's not what I'm talking about here.)

Since this is so, I see no reason not to call people by whatever name
they want to be called, whether by their biological father's name,
their adoptive mother's name, or anything else. 

I also understand, though I have not actually seen this, that in the
ketuba of a ger with a Jewish biological father his name would be
*written* as "ben Avraham Avinu", but would be *read* as "ben ploni",
because of kavod habriot.

-- 
Zev Sero               Something has gone seriously awry with this Court's
zev at sero.name          interpretation of the Constitution.
                      	                          - Clarence Thomas