Who Is A Jew?
Israeli government to High Court: Only Orthodox conversions count.
DINA KRAFT
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Tel Aviv
M
aya Gabai considers herself a Jew. Last
week, the 25-year-old Romanian celebrated
her conversion Linder the auspices of Israel's
onservative movement.
But last week, Gabai, who has lived in Israel for six
years, was miffed by an Israeli government opinion
submitted to the High Court maintaining that only
conversions overseen by official, state-sanctioned,
Orthodox rabbinical courts should be honored.
"I am 100 percent a Jew," said Gabai, who married
an Israeli man last year and plans to stay in Israel. "All
this is about politics, not about what I feel."
In the latest battle over conversion in Israel, the
state opinion was submitted in response to an appeal
by a group of 15 foreigners wishing
to have their Conservative or Reform
conversions in Israel recognized by
the state.
But the state, wary of foreigners in
Israel converting en masse for the citi-
zenship benefits that follow, said Nov.
17 that they would not recognize
what they termed "private conver-
sions" — conversions that are not
overseen and approved by the
Orthodox-run rabbinate.
"The moment they convert every-
body that comes, this contradicts the
meaning of conversion because con-
version should stem from a real desire
to be a Jew, not a real desire to be an
Israeli," said Yochie Gnessin, who is
representing the state in the case.
Gnessin said the government's
position is intended to protect the
integrity of Israel's Law of Return,
which gives Jews the automatic right
to Israeli citizenship.
The Nov. 17 government opinion
was the latest salvo in a debate that
has long roiled both Israel and the
diaspora. Non-Orthodox Jews, who
represent the majority of Jews outside Israel, see the
issue as a critical one in their efforts to gain acceptance
by Israeli authorities. The Israeli courts have played an
active role in the conversion controversy over the
years.
In 1989, the High Court ruled that Reform and
Conservative conversions conducted overseas would
be recognized in Israel.
The High Court is expected to rule on the current
case, which was filed in 1999, in the coming months.
Reform and Conservative officials in Israel insist
the move is just the latest government attempt to
entrench the Orthodox monopoly on conversion.
Furthermore, they said the state is engaging in baseless
scare tactics.
There is no danger of their movements converting
large numbers of foreign workers and tourists, they
said; because both movements have pledged only to
convert those who are legal residents of Israel and who
have a genuine desire to become Jews and live their
lives in Israel.
"The state continues to pull out these excuses in
order to keep up the Orthodox monopoly on conver-
sions," said Nicole Maor, a lawyer at the Reform
movement's Israel Action Center who is representing
petitioners in the case. "These are just excuses to justi-
fy the desire, which the Supreme Court has said is ille-
gal, to keep up the Orthodox monopoly."
Rabbi Shlomo Amu, the Sephardi chief rabbi of
important that a convert knows and observes them."
In a highly unusual development, the state's opin-
ion notes that Interior Minister Avraham Poraz has a
dissenting opinion. Poraz, whose ministry oversees
immigration, said he believes non-Orthodox conver-
sions conducted in Israel should be recognized by the
state.
Poraz is concerned that the stringent conversion
used by the Orthodox rabbinate seems to deter immi-
grants from the former Soviet Union who are not
halachically Jewish from attempting to convert.
As many as 300,000 of the nearly 1 million immi-
grants who came to Israel in the 1990s from the for-
mer Soviet Union pay taxes and serve in the army, but
can't marry Jews in Israel or be buried in Jewish ceme-
teries.
"We think that many Jews in the world are Reform
and Conservative and are no less Jewish than
Orthodox Jews," Tibi Rabinovic,
Poraz's chief of staff, told the JTA.
"The government needs to take
this into account."
Poraz is a member of the secular
Shinui Party, which had great suc-
cess in the most recent elections,
running on a platform advocating a
separation of synagogue and state.
Rabbi Ehud Bandel, president
of the Conservative movement in
Israel, said in response to the gov-
ernment filing: "I trust the court to
reject this reply and declare that the
Conservative and Reform conver-
sions are equal to the Orthodox."
Bandel suggested that the gov-
ernment was motivated by political
considerations, trying to maintain
the status quo on conversion
because Prime Minister Ariel
Sharon needs the support of the
religious parties to maintain his
shaky coalition.
Non-Jewish Russian immigrants
The government's opinion
studying for conversion listen to a lecture
marked "the latest episode on the
on Judaism in Jerusalem.
`Who is a Jew' controversy that for
years dominated the agenda in
Israel-Diaspora relations," Bandel said.
Israel who is in charge of conversion in the country,
"We were hoping that finally the state would realize
told JTA he stood by the government opinion. He
that any discrimination against non-Orthodox streams
said that an Orthodox conversion is the only conver-
sion considered valid according to Halachah, or Jewish is unacceptable and illegal."
Orthodox authorities say Jewish law requires that
law. He said the Conservative and Reform movements
converts undergo traditional ritual conversion and
do not do conversions according to Halachah —
commit to adhering to all the precepts of Jewish law.
"they do not know Halachah, they themselves do not
Non-Orthodox streams contend that these authorities
follow Halachah."
inevitably interpret Halachah strictly as Orthodox
"Conversion is not a contract for renting an apart-
observance.
ment or starting a business," he said, adding that
"conversion means accepting the mitzvot and it is
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