Jerusalem – The government on Sunday reversed the conversion reform law passed just seven months ago, marking a significant victory for the haredi political parties and religious establishment against the decentralization efforts of moderate national-religious groups.
Subscribe to our Daily Roundup Email
Yisrael Beytenu chairman Avigdor Liberman strongly denounced the reversal of the conversion reforms adopted by the last government in today’s cabinet meeting, saying that the country’s Jewish identity was being held captive to extremist haredi elements.
The purpose of the law was to raise conversion rates among the immigrant population, and their children, from the former Soviet Union, some 330,000 of whom are not considered Jewish according to Jewish law.
These measures, enacted by government order in November last year, were however bitterly opposed by Chief Rabbis David Lau and Yitzhak Yosef and the haredi political parties United Torah Judaism and Shas.
Indeed, reversing the reform was a specific clause in the coalition agreement between Likud and UTJ.
Liberman, a long-standing proponent of conversion reform, accused the government of betraying immigrants from the former Soviet Union by agreeing to reverse the reforms.
“We’re talking here about a government that is totally controlled by the haredi parties and is making Israeli society once again a captive to extremist elements who are making the lives of Israeli citizens more difficult.” said Liberman.
Israelis, he said, “want to live in a state of tolerant and enlightened Judaism and not in a benighted country that subjugates itself to the most extreme haredi elements.”
The Conversion Law will not be repealed but amended, so that municipal chief rabbis can in theory still establish their own conversion courts.
However they will need the approval of the Council of the Chief Rabbinate to do so, and the Council will also tasked with appointing two other rabbinical judges to serve on the new rabbinical court for conversion being established.
Given that the two chief rabbis and the overwhelming majority of the 16-member council oppose the idea of allowing municipal chief rabbis to establish conversion courts, and oppose in particular the ideological backers of the law, Rabbis David Stav and Shlomo Riskin, it is highly unlikely that the intended purpose of the law will be realized.
Bayit Yehudi’s Education Minister Naftali Bennett and Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked voted against the measure. The party sought a more active role in matters of religion and state during coalition negotiations, but were rebuffed, with the prime minister giving all power on the matter to the haredi parties.
Ahead of the vote, Bennett tweeted that he would oppose canceling the conversion reform, writing “it is essential that we convert hundreds of thousands according to halacha and in a welcoming way. [Former justice minister] Tzipi [Livni] and I passed the decision, and it is unfortunate to cancel it.”
Agriculture Minister Uri Ariel, of the more religiously conservative Tekuma party within Bayit Yehudi, skipped the vote. MK Bezalel Smotrich, the other Tekuma MK, tweeted that “canceling the conversion reform is good and will contribute to the status and trustworthiness of conversions.”
MK Aliza Lavie and former MK Elazar Stern, one of the major proponents of the conversion reform, wrote a letter to Netanyahu and Attorney-General Yehuda Weinstein on Saturday night, lamenting that the vote is taking place without any public discourse.
“The current decision is meant to roll back conversions and send it years backwards. It reflects a withdrawal by the government from anything connected to encouraging the continuation of the blessed process that began in the last Knesset,” they wrote.
Lavie said harming converts harms Israel as a Jewish state by distancing people from the rabbinate and creating tens of thousands of situations in which people will not be able to get married.
“Unfortunately, they sold everything in the name of coalition agreements,” Lavie said. “Canceling the government decision to allow municipal rabbis to convert is the biggest conversion fraud in the history of the Jewish People.”
Opposition leader Isaac Herzog (Zionist Union) said the decision was motivated by narrow, cynical political interests meant only to keep the prime minister in his seat.
“This seriously harms broad swaths of the population, including women, immigrants and those who want to be part of our nation and are rejected again and again,” he said
Dr. Shuki Friedman of the Israeli Democracy Institute’s Center for Nationality, Religion and State said the vote was a mistake that excludes large population groups who see themselves as part of the Jewish people and the State of Israel.
“Canceling the reform will reinforce the situation in which hundreds of thousands of citizens who see themselves as part of the Jewish people will not be able to join it in practicality. We should convert those who want to be converted according to halacha, but in a way that brings them closer to Judaism and allows a more dignified conversion process,” he stated.
Friedman added that the original reform should have been passed as a law, not a government decision, so that any change would have required an in-depth public discussion in the Knesset.
Um,the J post article is just a wee bit slanted. Any way,BH Torah prevailed. These same foolish politicians refused to insert the words ” al pi halcha” regarding mi hu Yehudi in the law of return. Now they’re complaining that the country has hundreds of thousands of immigrants of the FSU who are Goyim and that it’s too hard for them to convert! What a chutzpah!!!