Israel – Proposed legislation that would broaden the authority of the Chief Rabbinate in Israel on matters of conversion would also alter the Law of Return, distinguishing between that law and the Citizenship Law.
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The bill, put forth by MK David Rotem of Yisrael Beiteinu, is the result of negotiations he held with both Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar and the ultra-Orthodox Shas party. According to this legislation, conversion – even if done in Israel – will be insufficient basis for requesting Israeli citizenship.
The bill proposes that the Law of Return only be applicable to Jews or their offspring, and not to non-Jews who opted to convert – even if the conversion follows Orthodox procedure in line with state religious courts in Israel.
The proposed legislation will be brought before the Knesset Constitution, Law and Justice Committee, and represents the manifestation of one of Yisrael Beiteinu’s electoral promises to its constituency, namely to improve the status of those considered non-Jews according to halakha (Jewish religious law).
However human rights organizations maintain that the bill would hurt the rights of converts by broadening the power of the Chief Rabbinate on this issue.
For years, Orthodox conversions in Israel have been carried out almost exclusively by special religious courts for conversion, headed by Rabbi Haim Druckman. The courts that are controlled by the Chief Rabbinate have avoided carrying out conversions.
The conversion courts have experienced a crisis in recent years, in part due to administrative problems and also as a result of Chief Rabbinate rulings that considered thousands of conversions void.
The bill would authorize rabbis that have been appointed by the Chief Rabbinate to cities to carry out conversions there, which is expected to ease the process. According to the proposal, the city rabbis would be able to carry out conversions through the use of a panel of three qualified rabbis, and would also be able to register marriages for those who have converted.
If the bill passes into law, it will effect the law on the chief rabbinate as well as the Citizenship Law. The latter will be amended to allow citizenship to be given not to those who convert or to those “who were not eligible to become an immigrant prior to their entry to Israel.”
Rabbi Shaul Farber of the Itim Institute said “We are shocked by this law. Jewish tradition has always considered converts fully part of the fate of the Jewish people. It is hard to accept a situation in which a person who underwent state-sponsored conversion in Israel will be considered a second class Jew and will not be entitled to immigrate.”
The Movement for Progressive Judaism described the bill as a “coup meant to bypass the Supreme Court over the issue of who is a Jew,” because it denies converts the right to become Israeli citizens.
Halacha unequivocally considers sincere gerim to be Jewish (with the small caveats such as marriage to kohanim), and absolutely more so than, say, the various immigrants from the Former Soviet Union with a Jewish father but non-Jewish mother who make up a large portion of Beitenu’s voters.
Also, Hitler yemach shemo v’zichro killed gerim as well as those born Jews and those with 1/4 or more Jewish ancestry (this being the justification for the one grandparent required under the Law of Return).
So why is either party going along with this?
This will be the death knell of Aliyah if that is what these idiots at yisroel beitenu want. If someone is megayer in accordance with halacha than there is no difference from a yid who was born a yid.
So you will throw out people like Rachel Factor?
I cannot believe Amar would be dumb enough to support such a law which is contrary to what has historically been a constant in jewish law. Tell Amar that the jewish converts who died in the Shoah with shmah on their lips did not bother telling the Nazis “but we are not REAL jews so spare us”.
I can not understand how this law helps the political party “Yisroel Beiteinu”. By denying acceptance to converts the law will improve the status of non jews in Israel? I do not see the connection. Maybe Because I missed my Shabbis shluf.
Judaism always considers a ger to be fully Jewish in every aspect of their lives. Would they not give the great sages Shmaya, Avtalyon, Unkelos, and others the right of return to Israel?! We Jews as a people would be nowhere if we didn’t happily accept geirim as full fledged Jews in every respect…
This is what happens with a “Jewish State” which has no borders between “church” and state…
shas is trouble. not to mention they lost credibility when they joined the wzo this year. nebuch.
Yad L’Achim caught 60 fraudulent converts. This problem is something that has plagued Israel just in the last 15 to 20 years, where there has been an influx of messianics, doing anything, including conversion many times, to stay, together with all the non-Jews that the Jewish Agency brought in over the last number of years. Jews do not believe in conversions unless it is someone who is a true potential and comes even three times to a rabbi beseeching to be converted, and only then if this person is really sincere (meaning he has a yiddishe neshama) is he/she a ger tzedek! This is the only type of conversion that is k’fi halacha and not this phony baloney mass new fad conversion, factory style. Thanks to the Jewish Agency that brought in so many non-Jewish Russians (1/2 to 3/4 are not Jewish). Yisrael Beiteinu is thinking only of their voting bloc. The status quo of who is a Jew will be changed according to what this party would like to see in regards to marriages, divorces and conversions. These are very trying times. May the One Above have mercy on Bnei Yisrael; otherwise, we have a modern version of a new ‘erev rav’ to plague us!
Beside from being a convert, and sometimes being looked at like a second class citizen, now on top hearing that Rav Amar also goes along with this…is truely a concern.
Rabbis are the one who caused this problem and unfortunately there are many children born from these marriages. Many convert are very sincere one, but are look open for higher standard than what they (born Jewish) can be themselves… in this confused generation. What a shame on all Israel this request!
I converted based on Torah value and especially morale atrribute that goes along with Torah. To read this article is morally disturbing after changing it’s life 360 degree…
Where are the true leader…It is time for Mochiach to arrive with his sens of smell and determine who is and not!! Many will be surprised!!
But is says in Torah, torah acahs yehe lachem velager hagar betocham. “one law shall be for you and the convert who lives in your midst”
But is says in Torah, torah acahs yehe lachem velager hagar betocham. “one law shall be for you and the convert who lives in your midst”
and it says, vedatem et nefesh hager ki gerem heyetm beretz mitzrayim….
This proposed law is in total denial of halacha. It should state, like the Lubavitcher Rebbe said thousands of times, “any person who was born to a Jewish mother or who converted according to halacha can come to Israel”.
This makes me physically sick. I could never imagine the day when I (an adopted geir) could be looked at something other than a yid, or as some second-class yid. I am astonished, embarrassed, sickened and fuming mad all at the same time. I have extended family who went off the derech many years ago. To think that they would get a free pass and I would have to stand outside the proverbial “velvet rope” as some kind of reject is beyond the level of humiliating to say the least.
Every so often some new issue with converts comes up, and ever time it does I feel like one day some Rav is going to show up at my door and tell me that the frum life I have led since I was 3 days old was for naught because I’m not really a yid. I know that may sound stupid to some people, but you couldn’t know that feeling if you are not a geir yourself. I know many people who just don’t talk about it (especially adoptees) or go out of their way to keep it a secret because they fear the stigma attached to it.
In all my years, I am humiliated that my children will read something like this, and others will talk to my children about me being “less than”. I’m nauseous.
If this doesn’t get shot down… I spent 9 years between my reform conversion and my halachic conversion trying to find a beis din that would be recognized in Israel “because someday we might want to make aliyah”… I supposedly found one… May Moshiach come speedily and within our days!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The problem is too many converts are only converting for the economical advantages given to a Jew who makes aliyah. I think this would discourage anyone who was converting for those reasons and not for true reason. On one hand I sympathize with those who became geyrim lishma, but understand the reasoning for this law.
this country understands very well the future of our people…. accept non jews with one jewish grandfather or grandmother(on fathers side), or jewish father…. but do not accept 100% jewish converts… do they know what makes someone a jew ? it’s not BLOOD
zionist state knows nothing about judaism
Why would Arabs and other non-Jews be permitted to become Israeli citizens but for Geirim it would be insufficient basis for requesting Israeli citizenship?
this type of political rhetoric instills anguish and fear in those converts who actually follow the torah law and their hearts as they immigrate to israel..
this type of talk and heaven forbid law is just wrong in my judgement.
now we all see the fruit that is sewn from the ultra-religious element that meddled with conversion standards. they took it away from local orthodox batei din trying
to be more religious than the torah required (ofcourse on the backs of the converts and not off of their skin or dime) . perhaps this is the Almightys answer to us for the institutions built by the troppers in our midst.
To #16 Don’t feel too bad. There are plenty of adoptees out there. Join the club!! My kid was treated like a pariah in a “fine” “upstanding” Flatbush Yeshiva. All I got was aggrevation from the school!! My kid was always in the wrong!! They never looked at the other kids — always pinned it on my kid!! I pulled my child out and put it into another school. Much better!! They also found things that the other school had not done that I always complained about!! It seems I was right!! I have been meaning to go public but I don’t want to be a Moser like Dwek!!
The State of Israel truly is the 71st Goyisher Land. I await the day of its destruction so we may usher in moshiach. And I live in Eretz Yisroel
To all the my fellow gerim bnai gerim, adopted and so on.
First of all it is a fact, that most born Jews see us as an kind of inferior Jews. This is so from the time of Moishe Rabaini. Moishe Rabaini and all the real gedoilim welcomed Yisro with the biggest honors while klal Isrual suspected him of inferior motivation. (See Rashi on Yisro’s departing).That’s how it is. Meanwhile klal Isruel daven 3 times a day to receive the same blessing as you, all erliche gerim. Not so bed over all. 🙂
Regarding laws of Medinas Tzionim. They never represented Torah values which you chose to follow and never will be, so… what to be worry about?
This breaks my heart. What more can one say? I love judaism, jews, and eretz Israel. I’m shomer mitzvos, I’ve raised a wonderful large family, and I’ve done my best to give back as much as possible to the klal. I genuinely believe that most frum yidden don’t have negative feelings about genuine geirim. Nonetheless, reading something like this is just so terribly terribly painful. It seems over the last 10 – 15 years that the world has just gone crazy.
First of all, Syrian communities have shunned Geirim for generations. This was done with the blessing of their Rabbonim in order to protect from intermarriage.
In addition, this has nothing to do with shunning the Geirim. All it does is remove the carpet acceptance of geirim, in order to stop the abuse of the system.
I love all these commentors who have no idea of the reasoning, blasting the Rabbis. Shame on you!
I just want to point out that Onkelos, Ovadiah Hanavi, the wife of Yehoshua bin Nun, Shmaya and Avtalyon, Parents of R’ Meir and R’ Akiva, etc, etc, would all not be included in the law of return.
This is proof that the Erev Rav is running the Rabbinate in Israel. What more proof could there ever be than denying Aliyah of converts. May Hashem erase the Erev Rav out of the Land, may it be soon.
This is very nice…ha ha…was to be expected once the Statae of Israel was established. It is only strange though as for the ancestry the Jews descende from King David who was from the family of Ruth who converted. Well in this case discrimination is an everiday thing nowdays. The Jews for thousand years never made a difference between citicianship and religion, plus I understand that for Halacha’ when you are Jewish, no matter that you convert, no one is supposed to not even talk that that person converted, how comes that now they have to declare it.
Farber is wrong. There has not been an eternal, open-door policy, it is against the mesorah to claim it so – doors were closed in the past and will be in the future. Even the academics on Tanach disagree with him, believing Gerut (as understood today), was a later innovation in response to changes in Greek identity (as their empire expanded and militated changes in citizenship concept).
I wouldn’t trust Haaretz to portray this law correctly. However if there is a spate of people faking their way through gerus for the purpose of becoming Israeli citizens then it makes sense to remove that incentive. In the days of David and Shlomo the batei din refused to perform conversions altogether, because there were so many people flocking to become Jews for the material benefits.