The Interior Ministry must register local residents who
convert to Judaism in non-halachically valid procedures, such
as those performed by Reform and Conservative clergy, here or
abroad, as Jews, a panel of 11 High Court justices ruled last
week. Until now, the courts had only forced the Ministry to
accept the validity of Reform or Conservative procedures
performed abroad. The court said explicitly that its ruling
applies only to the population registry and does not affect
procedures involving personal status such as marriage and
divorce. UTJ published a special statement condemning the
decision as did Agudath Israel of America.
The Interior Ministry said it is studying the decision and
considering how it will respond. The Interior Minister is the
leader of the Shas party. One possibility is registering non-
Orthodox converts as Reform Jews or Conservative Jews.
Only two justices dissented from the decision. Justice Jacob
Turkel accepted it, but rejected the principle behind it and
said it should no longer be applied.
Judge Yitzchak Englard, a religious Jew who is a close
friend of Chief Justice Barak, was the only judge opposed to
the ruling. In his minority opinion, he stated that the High
Court is not allowed to rule on such an issue. He expressed
strong censure of the judges, noting that since the issue is
a matter of personal outlook, it is not subject to judiciary
procedures. In his opinion he wrote, "The legal definition of
conversion by has only one meaning: conversion according to
Torah law, as it has been crystallized in Jewish halacha
throughout the generations."
Chief Justice Barak went to great lengths to play down the
importance of the ruling by explaining there is nothing new
in the decision and it is based on a judicial precedent in
force for 40 years. At the same time, however, he said the
Jewish population of Israel does not constitute a monolithic
religious community, headed by the chief rabbis, as the state
had contended, but is the pluralistic state of the Jewish
people.
Two other petitions by converts, still pending, involve
demands to be recognized as Jews and granted citizenship in
accordance with the Law of Return. According to a 1962
precedent in the Funk-Schlesinger case, the ruling said, the
duty of Interior Ministry clerks is to register the personal
details in the population registry exactly as they are told
and without trying to judge their truth, unless they are
blatant lies. According to Funk-Schlesinger, "The job of the
registrar is that of one who is only collecting statistical
data to update the population registry. He has no power of
discretion."
The court rejected the state's argument that the job of
registering a resident as Jewish is more than statistical,
because of the implications this identity carries here. They
also rejected the argument that Israelis could not be
converted by Reform or Conservative rabbis because, according
to a 1922 British Mandate law, they belong to the "Jewish
religious community," headed by the chief rabbis.
Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi Yisrael Lau lashed out against ruling,
saying it creates a division between religion and the state,
dividing a nation already in crisis, just at the moment when
unity is needed. "Torah and mitzvos are the key to becoming
part of the Jewish people," Chief Rabbi Lau said. This ruling
will create two types of converts: those recognized by
Halacha and those defined as Jewish by the High Court, he
said. "The word Jewish might be stamped on their identity
cards, but the Jewish nation will treat them non- Jews."
Orthodox MKs vowed to rectify the situation by proposing
legislation.
Deputy National Infrastructure Minister Naomi Blumenthal
(Likud) said the court ruling would "open a Pandora's box "
and only aggravate religious-secular tensions. She also said
the court's decision is a violation of the status quo. MK
Avraham Ravitz (United Torah Judaism) said he would advance
efforts to remove the nationality listing in the identity
card.
The United Torah Judaism faction in the Knesset completely
rejected the High Court decision concerning Reform and
Conservative "conversions."
Following the decision, the UTJ faction published a special
declaration, stating, "The reform and conservatives have been
incessantly attempting to uproot and pervert the conversion
process. The situation has reached the stage where nothing is
left of the proper practice of giyur but a ceremony
with absolutely no validity in Judaism. Recognition of
conversion for the purpose of identity card registration will
lead to a need to keep lists of family trees that will have
to be consulted by anyone wishing to be a true Jew.
"In spite of the fact that according to the decision such
`conversion' has no practical ramifications and doesn't alter
one's personal status in the least, the United Torah Judaism
faction believes that this decision is a blow to the
preservation of the chain of generations of the Jewish
people, and liable to blur true Jewish identity. Within two
or three generations this is liable to bring about drastic
assimilation within the Jewish people, since no one will know
who is actually Jewish.
"This High Court decision is another example of judicial
intervention in a strictly halachic issue along with
delivering a blow to the halochoh that has been operative
within the Jewish people for many generations and under the
aegis of the rabbinical courts. The High Court justices have
once again demonstrated their outlook and their social and
Jewish point of view to anyone still unsure of it. The
decision further strengthens United Torah Judaism's demand
that judges be elected just like Knesset members. This demand
that has been brought up a number of times in the past.
"The United Torah Judaism faction calls for immediate
legislation of a law that will unequivocally determine that
rabbinical courts are solely qualified to deal with
conversion issues."
According to Rabbi Shmuel Bloom, Agudath Israel's executive
vice president, the decision represents "a sad symbolic shift
from the Jewish religious heritage, . . . which will only sow
confusion, disillusionment and heartbreak. . . . The only
solution is for the Jewish people to merit G-d's protection.
What we desperately need now is affirmation, not abandonment,
of our spiritual heritage and identity."
The Vaad Horabbonim Haolami Leinyonei Giyur founded by
HaRav Chaim Kreiswirth zt"l gaavad of Antwerp issued a
statement saying that the botei dinim and the rabbonim
will now have to be more careful when examining the validity
of converts. It is hoped that no one will depend on the
registration of the Israeli identity card. In the past, many
rabbinical registrars and burial societies have relied on the
identity card even though the guidelines of the Chief
Rabbinate say that this is not acceptable.
The Vaad wishes to clarify that a valid Orthodox conversion
is not only determined by the affiliation of the rabbi
performing the conversion, but mainly it must meet all
halachic requirements including that the candidate fully and
sincerely accepts shemiras mitzvos at the time of
conversion.
The Vaad has documented evidence that most of the
"conversions" performed by the Special Conversion Courts of
the Chief Rabbinate in Israel do not meet these requirements
and therefore are null and void even bedi'eved.
One should not confuse our battle against heretic
Conservative and Reform clergy -- including their conversions
-- with the issue of maintaining proper conversion standards
within the Orthodox rabbinate.
In a related matter, the eleven judges rejected an appeal by
leftists to revoke a provisional law enacted by the Knesset a
year ago that allows draft deferments to full-time yeshiva
students to proceed as they have for the past 50 years. The
judges determined that since a special Knesset committee for
this matter has yet to complete the legislative process,
there is no cause for intervention by the High Court.
