Prominent Jewish voices in the United States have voiced concern over the latest efforts undertaken by Sephardi Chief Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef and Otzma Yehudit leader MK Itamar Ben-Gvir's to roll back the status of Reform conversions and specifically undo the High Court of Justice's decision from 2021 that recognizes non-Orthodox conversions for the purposes of aliyah under the Law of return.
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"This has never happened that the High Court has a say. There has never been a government like this with 32 religious MKs, but this is an opportunity to rectify the law of 'Who is a Jew'," Yosef at his regular shiur [lecture on Torah topics] recently.
The next morning Ben-Gvir made an announcement that he would promote the inclusion of the term "Giyur by Halacha" in the State Gazette, to prevent recognition of Reform conversions as part of the aliyah process. This, it seems, is the start of another difficult battle in the conversion saga that has been going on for many decades.
A conversion law was never enacted in the State of Israel, despite the fact that it is an acute issue for the future of the Jewish People. Regarding the Law of Return, then-Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion decided with the establishment of the Jewish State, that: "Whoever was born to a Jewish mother and is not of another religion, or whoever converted according to Jewish Law," will be considered a Jew. In 1970 it was ruled that the child and grandchild of a Jewish person can immigrate to Israel, by virtue of the Law of Return. During those years, many discussions were held in order to determine who is a Jew, and how to define a person who converts by a conversion process that is not Orthodox, but to no avail.
In March 2021 the High Court of Justice ruled that whoever underwent a conversion in the Reform or Conservative communities would be recognized as a Jew for the Law of Return. This ruling enraged many Orthodox Jews, and this is what the Haredi and religious MKs currently wish to rectify.
Only several hundreds of people have been converted since that ruling in unrecognized private, Reform or Conservative courts, and it is not known if there are any people who have been recognized by the court this way, among others, as this is a symbolic and declarative act with no actual effect.
"Conversion is a halachic term," says Rabbi Yaakov Ariel, former chief Rabbi of Ramat Gan and one of the most prominent Rabbis in the religious-Zionist community. "Only one who knows halacha can convert a person, and one who does not know the rules of conversion has not converted the said person. The outside world should not be interfering in this matter. Why is the world interfering in something they do not know anything about? Conversion is a halachic matter. Period," Ariel said on the Reform conversions. He also supports the opinion of the chief rabbi and claims that the court should not be dealing with conversions. "The court does not understand Jewish law and this is not its jurisdiction. If they were judges who understand Halachah, this is another matter, but this is not the case, and they cannot interfere here."
"The big question is what is conversion according to Jewish law. Is a conversion by a private court considered a valid conversion? I am not sure that Ben-Gvir would have agreed that certain Orthodox sectors would be defined as converted by Jewish law. In general. I believe that we have to stay away like fire from situations where judges are deciding what Halachah is and what it is not, "explains Tani Frank, head of the Shalom Hartman Institute's Center for Judaism and State Policy. "The direction that the Haredi sectors are taking seems to be a national conversion law, that was halted in 2017 by Lieberman and Bennet, and which rules that all conversions are state supported – and there would not be any Reform or Conservative conversions. This will infuriate the non-Orthodox movements, but it will put everyone through an equal procedure – both the private Orthodox conversions, and those that are not."
One thing is totally clear – that the discussion on conversions is exceptionally volatile to Jews in the Diaspora and intensifies the rift between Israel and other countries around the world, because unlike Israel, the Reform Movement represents the majority of Jews there. Andrew Rehfeld, who is president of Hebrew Union College, the Reform Movement's seminary and college for Jewish studies, says that there is no reason to be angry as long as these are only words, but the trend is more worrying. These days, despite the irony, he is in Israel, inaugurating a new entrance to the Hebrew Union College campus in Jerusalem and participating in an ordination ceremony certifying five new Reform rabbis.
"When we talk about supporting Israel, we are talking about three basic values –the security of the Jewish people, the flourishing of pluralism, and the sovereignty of the Jewish people, which puts democratic law and justice as a priority," he says. "Such suggestions are the total opposite of these principles, a radical approach to Zionism that puts the Jewish People in a much riskier position and limits the options on the table. I believe that this is a threat to the Jewish state. Whoever delegitimizes the actions of thousands of Reform communities in Israel and around the world, threatens our safety and harms the Jewish People. They are taking an anti-Zionist position. This is not the Zionism that I know. If they take these steps, they will distance Israel from the Diaspora. We are not going anywhere, but we have to work harder to strengthen the Jewish People."
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