The High Court building with the Knesset in the background
Halachic poskim, dayanim and rabbonim expressed their protest and chagrin regarding the dangerous development and intervention of the Bagatz-High Court in the sensitive subject of recognizing the `conversion' of non-Jews performed by Reform or Conservative clergy which constitutes a woeful breach in the genealogical purity of the Jewish people while outrageously dealing a blow to the status quo and the sanctity of the Jewish people.
This is a continuance of a suit first filed fifteen years ago regarding the Reform `conversion' of non-Jewish immigrants. Notwithstanding, this past Monday, the High Court judges ruled that the State must recognize as proper Jews those who have undergone `conversion' while residing in Israel through the Reform or Conservative communities, making them eligible for the benefits of the Law of Return.
This ruling was approved by the majority of a court of nine judges. The president of the Supreme Court, Judge Esther Hayut, who headed the above consensus, wrote in her decision that "so long as no other lawgiver has made any other ruling, there is no reason not to recognize [the `converts'] as Jews regarding the Law of Return for those who have undergone the procedure by non-Orthodox communities in Israel." In their decision, the judges stressed that "this ruling is strictly addressed to the civilian-public question of the legal rights from the standpoint of the Law of Return and does not address any religious issue."
This ruling aroused, as expected, much wrath and deep pain. Chief Rabbi Dovid Lau said that "whoever has undergone any Reform or other process of `conversion' is not considered a Jew. No High Court decision like this or any other can change this fact. It is to be condemned that the court's decision allows the flooding of the State, which is a Jewish state, whereby any gentile can come and live here as a recognized citizen."
The head of United Torah Jewry, MK Rabbi Moshe Gafni, and Minister Rabbi Yaakov Litzman, said that "the High Court decision to recognize Reform/Conservative `conversion' in Israel bodes tragic results regarding the significance of the term, a Jewish State. For generations past, the Jewish nation was able to recognize itself as such without imitations or forgeries. And so will this continue in the future. Torah Jewry will demand overturning this resolution so as to thwart judicial activism which harms the masses of Jews here and abroad and threatens to tear us asunder from within. Without this, we will refuse to enter in any coalition agreement."
Deputy Minister Rabbi Uri Maklev said, "The Bagatz proves once again that it is a political tool which goads Jewry time and again with its arbitrary decisions, striking a blow to our Torah as transmitted to us throughout the generations. We do not live according to the Bagatz judges but according to the time-immemorial Torah. They are striking at the pure lineage of all Jewry and causing dangerous breaches in our vineyard. The Bagatz' ruling allows conversion candidates to receive the full rights of Jews living in Israel - this does not affect marriage or divorce and we will be forced to amend this ruling through legislation with coalition backing. We will not approve a national conversion law which disregards our rabbinical batei din. To our regret, the Bagatz waited until the eve of elections in order to present this decision so as to woo supporters of the Reform group."
The head of the Knesset Legislative Committee MK Rabbi Yaakov Asher said, "The announcement of this decision at this particular time is a flagrant intervention with the election campaign for the sake of currying favor with a certain faction on the political map. The Bagatz judges are pros in politics and the time has come to curb the Court's activism in determining the agenda in Israel."
Deputy Minister Rabbi Meir Porush reacted by saying, "What we feared has materialized. The self-sovereignty of the Court judges has broken all records. They have dug their talons in the sacrosanct areas of the Jewish people. It is superfluous to state that there is only one Judaism, the Torah which was given to Moshe at Sinai and transmitted since then through generation after generation, without any changes whatsoever. The Bagatz' `recognition' is ineffective and those `converts' will be no more than Bagatz converts: a law passed to curb the power of the High Court will be conditional to our entering a future government."
MK Rabbi Yaakov Tessler of UTJ said, "The Bagatz ruling to recognize Reform `conversions' constitutes a severe leap in its interference on clear-cut halachic matters. The court is exploiting the tail end of this Knesset which cannot pass a conversion law so as to clamp its talons on the sanctity of conversion. Religious halachic subjects cannot be decided through a secular judicial system."
Shas also reacted, declaring, "The Bagatz' decision to recognize Reform-Conservative conversions is a mortal blow to the Jewish character of the State and total ruin of the status quo regarding religious-national matters which have been in effect for over 70 years.
"This aggressive decision strikes at national unity and establishes an additional expression of the severe severance of the court judges from the bulk of our People which believes in a Jewish state and seeks to preserve its Jewishness according to time-hallowed tradition of thousands of years. Shas will initiate and promote a law abolishing this decision and will support legislation to curtail the power of the High Court to intervene again in this subject."
