A very serious ruling of Justice Vardi Zeiler of the
Jerusalem Regional Court, regarding 23 non-Jews who were
"converted" by a Reform clergyman a number of years ago, was
published last week. Justice Zeiler ordered the Interior
Ministry to register these non-Jews in the population ledgers
as Jews. This case is the result of an appeal filed by the
Israeli Reform movement after Interior Minister, Eli Suissa
refused to register them as Jews in the official population
registry.
This ruling is very serious for a number of reasons. The
first is that Zeiler's verdict was published even after the
High Court, sitting in its maximum forum of 11 judges, gave
the Knesset a number of months in which to pass a law
governing conversions, and is scheduled to again consider in
two months.
Degel HaTorah's general secretary, Rabbi Moshe Gafni, claimed
that there are additional, grave aspects to this ruling,
which not only pertain to the ruling itself, but also to the
fact that the content of the ruling was leaked by Zeiler's
close colleagues to chareidi and religious factors in order
to test their reaction to it.
In his verdict, Justice Zeiler writes that during the filing
of the appeal in 1996, a legal arrangement for the issue was
discussed, and for that reason he had decided to postpone his
verdict, despite the opposition of the Reform petitioners. He
postponed issuing a verdict for many months in the hope that
the deliberations in the Knesset on the topic would end
quickly. However when he saw that such wasn't the case, he
published his verdict, even though the issue is still pending
in the High Court.
"The Reform," writes Justice Zeiler, "constitute a very large
Jewish community, which includes a significant sector of the
Jewish Nation, which also has considerable weight in Israel."
According to the judge, the ruling does not decide a
religious question nor a matter of conscience, nor does it
grant power or an authoritative position. "All that is
involved is a secular law that grants registration authority
to a registration clerk," writes Zeiler at the end of his
ruling. With that, he instructed the Interior Ministry to
register the 23 Reform "converts" as full-fledged Jews in the
population records.
The ruling drew very sharp reactions. The chairman of the
Knesset's Constitution Committee, Chanan Porat, convened a
press conference, in which he expressed his reaction. He
described the decision as "judicial hijacking." Porat's
response was to push for the revamped Conversion Law that is
now opposed by maranan verabonon because it
incorporates the recommendation of the Ne'eman Committee,
however his committee rejected the law for now, probably
leaving the matter for the next Knesset (see separate
story).
The Vaad HaRabbonim Haolami LeInyonei Giyur headed by HaRav
Chaim Kreiswirth said that this court ruling to register
Conservative and Reform converts in the population registry s
Jews will be dealt with by rabbonim according to the
instructions of maranan, namely rabbonim will not
recognize the government registration. In every case they
will carefully check everyone to determine whether he or she
is Jewish, without relying on the government registry at
all.
The Chairman of the Finance Committee, Rabbi Avrohom Ravitz
said that the decision is liable to undermine the ongoing
existence of the Jewish Nation. "Since the Reform, by
definition, are not a religious movement, they may not be
considered a religious movement within the Jewish faith. I
don't see any difference between Reform `conversions' and
`conversions' which were made by a lawyer's office or a
psychiatrist's office or the Garage Association. None of
them, as organizations, obligate the fulfillment of the
mitzvos. There is no link between the Jewish Nation and a
movement which does not mandate the belief in the existence
of the Creator and Torah miSinai, which are the foundations
of the Jewish religion.
"How can a judge in Israel grant `converts' who were
`converted' by the Reform, a hechsher to join the
Jewish Nation, when the Reform themselves ridicule the Jewish
religion and for generations have been perpetrating
assimilation? The Reform recognize intermarriages, and as a
result, I see no link between them and the Jewish faith.
"Only an ugly atmosphere of hatred for Jews and the Jewish
religion could result in so scandalous a ruling," Rabbi
Ravitz said.
Rabbi Moshe Gafni said: "This is an unprecedented and brazen
ruling. How does a judge in a regional court rule on an issue
which is under deliberation in the High Court, in a forum of
11 judges. He is like the fool who rushes in and makes a
snatch decision on a topic about which all know that the High
Court is supposed to deliberate.
"It's not that I rely on the ruling of the High Court. But I
think that in ideological issues, when the question is how
one gains entry into the Jewish Nation, the court has become
the most extreme factor in the causing of a rift in the
Nation. According to this ruling, whose immediate meaning is
the separation of the Nation, non-Jews can enter the Jewish
Nation through scores of gates.
"During the fifty years of the state, all of the courts and
governments of Israel have professed that conversion may take
place only according to the halocho, and that the
gentiles who seek to convert may enter only through one gate.
Now the court has become the catalyst for dividing the nation
in an extreme manner. The ruling must cause the immediate
passage of the Conversion Law, in accordance with the
coalition agreement and the line of the government.
Everything must proceed according to the Jewish
halocho which states that only halachic conversions
are valid.
"Even before the ruling was officially published, various
people knew about it. I suspect an attempt to send out
feelers, in order to check out the reactions of the chareidim
and religious sectors of Israel, and this is very
serious."
MK Avrohom Yosef Laizerson said: "The ruling was published a
short time before the High Court has to decide on the
Conversion Law. This constitutes a direct continuation and
undermines the crass, serious and insufferable intervention
of the courts from the High Court, down to the Labor Court
and finally to the regional court. The judicial system
interferes in sacred ideological issues, which are entrusted
to the exclusive authority of the halocho and the
rabbinate.
"This proves again the justice of our claim that the judges
grant judicial backing to their personal opinions and private
world view, and this strengthens our demand to hold elections
for judges, who will be chosen by the public, and not by a
nomination committee. Today in the Knesset, we saw that large
parts of the Knesset want to expand the circle of the High
Court judges to include those who display consideration for
Jewish tradition in order to grant representation to
additional sectors in the Nation."
"This is a `test' of the Reform lie in advance of the
decision of the High Court and its 11 judges about the
Conversion Law. The Reform are attempting to insert their
fingernails into religious life in Israel, and to receive
legitimacy, and we will battle this. In light of this serious
degeneration, we will, of course, operate according to the
decisions of gedolei Yisroel, and this ruling proves
the justice of the battle and of the staunch insistence of
gedolei Yisroel that no dialogues at all be held with
the Reform," Rabbi Laizerson said.
Deputy Housing Minister, Rabbi Meir Porush said: "We have
once more been forced to register fictitious converts. This
is unbearable, and we will continue to struggle with this
issue on all levels. Every serious and responsible society
has entrance regulations. In the opinion of the Jerusalem
Regional Court, only the Jewish Nation has no right to such
rules, and every clown is permitted to tack on additions to
the Jewish Nation, people who haven't taken upon themselves
even the most minimal obligations and who don't agree to
observe any of the laws mandated by any normal society.
Through this decision, the Justice of the regional court is
ridiculing all that is sacred and dear to the Jewish Nation:
the sanctity of the generations, and the sanctity of the
People."
