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Did efforts continue to amend the Law of Return? The efforts have never really stopped. When Menachem Begin came to power in 1977, he brought with him a sympathy toward religious tradition previously unknown among Israeli heads of state. He pledged his support of efforts to amend the Law of Return to read "according to Halachah," noting that he favored the amendment on principle and not out of political expediency. But when American Reform and Conservative Jewish leaders warned that such an amendment would change the State of Israel from "the prin- cipal force uniting the Jewish people" into "the agent of its division," he agreed to postpone the bill. In the next few years, some Orthodox members of Knesset from the National Re- ligious Party and the Aguda advocated an indirect approach to the Who Is A Jew issue. Rather than amending the Law of Return, they sought to amend the Rab- binical Courts Law so as to allow those courts to determine who is and who is not a Jew. In that way the Rabbinical Courts rather than the Interior Ministry could in- validate non-Orthodox conversions. But Lubavitch continued to push for the direct approach of amending the Law of Return. What about all of the Soviet Jews of questionable religious status? SEVENTH HEAVEN HUNTER'S SQUARE What was the Orthodox reaction? Mon.-Sat. 10-6 352-0030 The Orthodox rabbinate in Israel handled these matters with a good bit of diplomacy and delicacy, converting many of the spouses without pressing hard on the issue of a convert's need to accept all of the mitzvot in the Torah. Some of the more right-wing Orthodox who, believing that these conversions were less than proper, renewed the effort to amend the Law of Return. To them, the amendment would not be aimed so much at Reform and Conservative rabbis in America as the Zionist rabbinate in Israel. In any event, in the last five years, the issue came to a vote in the Knesset on several occasions and was defeated by as few as seven votes. What was the most recent court ruling? The Reform movement recently decid- ed to counter-attack through the legal system. Shoshana Miller, an American Reform convert, was denied an identity card as a Jew by the Interior Ministry when she came to settle in Israel. She ap- pealed to the Supreme Court. Interior Minister Yitzhak Peretz (of the Shas religious party) came up with his own solution, announcing that all converts would be designated as "Jew (convert)" on their identity cards. Virtually everyone, from secular to Orthodox, opposed this step. In February of this year, the high court rul- ed in favor of Miller, ordering the Interior Ministry to register her as a Jew. Peretz resigned in protest, and Miller soon re- turned to the United States, having made her point. What is the current controversy all about? Several religious parties in Israel and, most notably, the Lubavitcher Rebbe in Brooklyn, are seeking to amend the Law of Return to include the phrase "according to Halachah" in describing converts, thus invalidating the conversions performed by non-Orthodox rabbis. This effort, as described earlier, is nothing new. What makes it a major issue today is that, in the wake of last month's national elections in Israel, the religious parties might have the political clout to have the amendment passed. What can be done to avert a catastrophe in Jewish life? There are a number of logical solutions, but logic and emotion don't always mix well. For instance, perhaps the most prac- tical solution to the Who Is A Jew con- troversy would be to revoke the Law of Return and have immigrants processed in the normal manner of countries, after ap- plying for citizenship and waiting a given amount of time. But since the Law of Return is the raison d'etre of the State of Israel, abolishing the law it is not the answer. Similarly, there are those who advocate removing the word "Jew" from the legisla- tive language or doing away with the Chief Rabbinate all together. But given the ongoing political and religious tensions, these will not happen, and perhaps the only way to deal with the issue is to continue to avoid dealing with it. The only positive aspect of this furor is in the realization that Israel is the center of the Jewish world. That is why Orthodox, Conservative, Reform and secular Jews all over the world grow impassioned over the possibility of adding three words to a piece of legislation in Jerusalem that would, in practical terms, affect less than a dozen people a year. A true understanding by the Israelis of the centrality of Israel to the Jews of the world, and the desire on the part of the Jewish people to remain as united as possi- ble, may be the. best foundation for a possi- ble solution. ❑