Last Monday, after fifteen years of waiting, the Israeli Supreme Court handed down a decision regarding non-orthodox conversions, that will reverberate for quite some time in both orthodox religious circles as well as the Reform and Conservative Jewish communities in Israel and abroad. Responding to a petition of eleven non-Israelis, who converted in Israel with non-Orthodox rabbis, and as a result were denied Israeli citizenship by the Interior ministry, the court ruled that the petitioners have a right to citizenship under the Law of Return, to the dismay of Orthodox circles who feel that their supremacy and exclusivity is in danger, and with that their political cloud.
Under the Law of Return, people are entitled to Israeli citizenship if they are Jewish and as such recognized by Halachic principles, or if they have at least one Jewish parent or grandparent, or are converted to Judaism by a recognized authority. And the last claim is the crucial and problematic one. Non-Jews who are converted abroad by such “recognized authority” include those converted by non-orthodox institutions and rabbis, meaning that Reform or Conservative converts, converted while abroad (mainly in the United States) are entitled in Israel to Citizenship since the Law of Return does not specify what kind of conversion will qualify. The Supreme Court ruling of last Monday addresses the issue of non-Israeli citizens that were IN ISRAEL converted by Reform of Conservative rabbis. The ruling will affect the monopoly of the Orthodox establishment and thus the sharp condemnation and the doomsday prediction by politicians if this ruling is allowed to stand. (politicians like Netanyahu who need the support of the Orthodox religious parties to be able to form a government).
There is no doubt that the supposed attack by the court on the independence and the monopoly of the Orthodox establishment is the only reason for storm blown up, because, in practice, the ruling affects only a very small number of people. (For whom no doubt the outcome after fifteen years, was a very welcome development). The Reform and Conservative movements in Israel perform only a small (about three hundred) conversions a year, and the large majority of these converts already are entitled to Israeli citizenship through other clauses of the Law of Return (mostly a Jewish parent of grandparent).
The Court specified in its ruling that the decision to hand down a decision was made only because it has become clear that the Knesset will continue not to act on this issue (and clarify the Law of Return) simply because they are happy (or forced to be happy by coalition considerations) with the current situation. The Knesset has consistently refused to deal with this matter, simply because specifying Orthodox conversion as the only recognized procedure would cause a sharp deterioration with American Jewry, the majority of which is not Orthodox, while allowing other denominations to perform conversions will undermine the status of the Orthodox establishment, and with that likely the financial arrangements with the State.
The Court also took pains to explain that the decision affected a “Civil Matter” and leaves the option for the Knesset to intervene and change the legislation open for their decision. And this is in fact the most important and most problematic part of the decision handed down by the Court. In some ways it is understandable that the Court took this road and added the stipulation of political intervention, because the decision becomes perilously close to one of the most dramatic problems Israel has been trying to deal with ever since its establishment: “WHO IS A JEW?”
Since Judaism is (primarily) a religion, it must be left to the religious leaders to make decisions regarding who is entitled to join the religion and who is not (Effectively, who is a Jew) and the result (like in most other religions) has been that Judaism has split into various streams, that share a number of basic principles but differ on many others. Similar things happened in Christianity, and today, Catholics, Calvinists, Lutherans, Russian Orthodox, Greek Orthodox, they all exist as separate religions with a common central issue, while the Jews have divided into Orthodox, Conservative, Reform, Modern-Orthodox etc.
The problem begins when the Jewish State, established for all Jews, and with benefits for all Jews, needs to decide what makes a person a Jew, and more importantly, what does not. The obvious place to make such a decision is of course the Knesset, which as the parliamentary body of the State of Israel is both entitled and empowered to make decisions such as who has the right to Citizenship. But with the political force of the Orthodox establishment and the many unwanted effects of a clear decision on the subject, the situation most likely will not change and if it will be taken up by the Knesset, in the end the Orthodox monopoly will prevail and we will see no more than another proof that the one of the biggest lies of all claims that “Israel is a Jewish and Democratic State. The most worrying part of this whole affair is the apparent decision by the Supreme Court to allow (Orthodox) Jewish principles in the Knesset to take precedence over Democratic principles. The court is very well aware that when it comes to religion in Israel, democracy is rapidly pushed aside and, while we may still hope that the Judges will take the side of Democracy when challenged to rule on future changes to the Conversion policy and with that changes to the Law of Return, the fact that they left that option open does not bode well for democracy in Israel.
It is long overdue for the Israeli population to decide if they want a Democratic State, (with religious freedom for al, including Jews that do not think as Orthodox), or they want a Jewish State (with ever increasing discrimination and racism).
They simply cannot have both.
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