Red Tape
Converts who immigrate to Israel find new roadblocks to citizenship.
Dina Kraft
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Critics say the new rules are too stringent,
making it harder than ever for converts to
immigrate to Israel.
Supporters say the new rules are meant to
separate genuine converts from those seeking
a quick path to Israeli citizenship.
Tel Aviv
M
., a 35-year-old American
woman who has been liv-
ing an Orthodox lifestyle for
years, thought she was doing everything
right.
She studied Judaism in Los Angeles, had
her conversion approved there and moved
to Israel to officially start her life as a Jew.
But then, she says, the Israeli Interior
Ministry changed the rules on her.
Five months after arriving, M. is still
awaiting Israeli citizenship despite
being eligible under the Law of Return,
which guarantees Jews worldwide the
right to Israeli citizenship.
"The Interior Ministry has so many
rules, and they keep changing," said M.,
who asked not to be identified by name
for fear it would jeopardize her bid for
Israeli citizenship. "Everyone you speak
to there gives a different story for what
you need. It seems people like me are
kept deliberately in the dark."
M., a professor of Chinese literature
who is married to an Israeli, is one of a
growing number of recent converts to
Judaism from the diaspora running into
problems in Israel due to a new set of
protocols at the Interior Ministry.
Critics say the new rules are too strin-
gent and are disenfranchising diaspora
Jewish communities that approve the
conversions, ultimately making it harder
than ever for converts from the diaspora
to immigrate to Israel. Supporters say
the new rules are meant to separate
genuine converts from those interested
in little more than a quick path to
Israeli citizenship.
The new regulations are the latest
chapter in the long-running battle over
who is a Jew — a question that repeated-
ly has strained diaspora-Israel relations.
According to the new regulations
— they have not been approved officially
but already are being employed, accord-
ing to advocates who deal with converts
— converts to Judaism from the diaspo-
ra must remain for at least nine months
before and after their conversions in the
community where they converted before
they can immigrate to Israel.
The rules also mandate 350 hours
of classes and hands-on practice for
Israeli Rabbi Shaul Farber calls the
new immigration rules "arbitrary."
converts in the diaspora (modeled on
standards set in Israel for its official
conversion institute) and bar any convert
who has a non-Jewish relative living in
Israel and anyone whose stay in Israel
was previously deemed illegal for any
period of time.
The rules, proposed by the previ-
ous interior minister, Meir Sheetrit, are
awaiting approval by the attorney gener-
al's office and are being reviewed by the
Justice Ministry.
Rabbi Uri Maldev, a Knesset member
from the United Torah Judaism party,
said through an aide that the rules are
meant to protect Israel from those who
seek to wrongfully enter as unauthentic
Jews.
"We want to safeguard the quality of
the Judaism," Maklev said. "There may
be many who would like to join, but
there are certain standards that need to
be maintained and that seems to be the
intention of these criteria. Even if one
person gets into the country under false
pretenses, that is a problem as it can
affect generations down the line."
Critics say the regulations constitute
an attempt to wrest control over conver-
sions away from rabbinic authorities in
the diaspora.
"The state has always maintained
at least a modicum of respect for the
integrity of local Jewish communities.
And now, for the first time, in order to
protect their immigration policy, they are
trying to impose arbitrary standards on
the Jewish communities of the diaspora,"
said Shaul Farber, an Orthodox rabbi and
founder of the Jerusalem office of the
Jewish Life Information Center, which
seeks to help Jews navigate the religious
bureaucracy in Israel.
"Instead of welcoming converts, Israel
seems to be scrutinizing them in a dra-
conian way," he said. "In my estimation,
this is something that ought to have
the American Jewish community in an
uproar?'
M. said she could not stay in Los
Angeles for another nine months after
her conversion for financial and personal
reasons. She thought she was free to
immigrate without any more conditions
once a 2005 Israeli Supreme Court panel
struck down a one-year waiting period
for would-be immigrants following a
conversion.
Interior Ministry spokeswoman Sabine
Hadad said the new criteria are under
review. Hadad did not elaborate on the
reasoning behind the new guidelines.
Rabbi Andy Sachs, head of Israel's
Conservative movement, took specific
issue with the 350-hour instruction
requirement.
"It's an abuse of power and it essential-
ly creates a papacy headed by the chief
rabbis who determine how rabbis abroad
must act:' Sachs said. "It completely
castrates the authority of the local rab-
binic and Jewish communities to make a
determination of when a person is ready
to become Jewish."
Israel does not recognize non-
Orthodox conversions unless they are
conducted abroad. Orthodox conversions
are accepted only if they are performed
by one of nine specific rabbinical courts
in the United States.
This has raised the ire of some
American Orthodox rabbis who are pub-
licly questioning why such a narrow band
of courts are considered legitimate.
Rabbi Barry Freundel, chairman of
the conversion policies and standards
committee of the Orthodox Rabbinical
Council of America, called it "troubling"
to have the Interior Ministry making
decisions on conversions.
His colleagues have discussed the
issue, Freundel said, but they were
unsure with whom to speak because they
generally deal with the Chief Rabbinate
and these rules are coming from the
Interior Ministry.
The Reform movement's Israel
Religious Action Center has been han-
dling the legal cases of both Conservative
and Reform diaspora converts who have
been rebuffed by the Interior Ministry.
"The criteria of the process is not the
business of the Israeli government, it's
the business of the religious communi-
ties themselves," said Rabbi Gilad Kariv,
who heads the Israel Religious Action
Center.
Among those waiting to become an
Israeli is Rachel, a 22-year-old woman
whose mother converted to Judaism
when Rachel was a child. Rachel grew
up in the Jewish community of Budapest
and attended a Jewish high school.
She's been waiting for three years
since she moved to Israel after having a
Conservative conversion in London.
"I've lived my whole life as a Jew:' said
Rachel, who has a renewable visa to
remain in Israel for now only because her
husband is a Jewish American who made
aliyah."It's very frustrating?' '11
July 23 • 2009
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