NEWS STORY: Israel’s chief rabbis reject compromise on Jewish conversions

c. 1998 Religion News Service JERUSALEM _ Israel’s chief rabbis Monday (Feb. 9) rejected a compromise plan to defuse the divisive controversy over religious conversions to Judaism, an issue pitting Orthodox against non-Orthodox Jews worldwide. The Chief Rabbinic Council _ the Orthodox state body that maintains hegemony over Jewish religious issues in Israel _ said […]

c. 1998 Religion News Service

JERUSALEM _ Israel’s chief rabbis Monday (Feb. 9) rejected a compromise plan to defuse the divisive controversy over religious conversions to Judaism, an issue pitting Orthodox against non-Orthodox Jews worldwide.

The Chief Rabbinic Council _ the Orthodox state body that maintains hegemony over Jewish religious issues in Israel _ said it rejected the compromise because”the sages of Israel”have historically”forbidden any cooperation”with non-Orthodox Jewish movements, which are more liberal and to varying degrees have modified traditional Jewish practice.


In a joint statement, spokesmen for Israel’s Reform and Conservative movements termed the council’s decision”a sad day for the Jewish people.” Reform Rabbi Uri Regev and Conservative Rabbi Ehud Bandel also called the chief rabbi’s decision”a resounding slam of the door of compromise and a declaration of war on the Jewish people.”.

For more than seven months a commission appointed by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has sought an acceptable solution to the heated controversy over conversions to Judaism in Israel.

American and other Jews living outside of Israel have been drawn into the increasingly bitter fray.

Non-Orthodox American Jewish leaders have framed the dispute as one over religious pluralism and have argued that to deny Reform and Conservative Judaism recognition in the Jewish state would alienate most American Jews from Israel. More than 90 percent of American Jews are not Orthodox.

Meanwhile, the Orthodox, who adhere closely to centuries-old traditional Jewish law, have insisted the issue is unity and maintaining a single standard for conversions to Judaism.

They also blamed the non-Orthodox for causing the controversy by taking the issue to court, and largely winning. That, the Orthodox have maintained, forced them to introduce legislation in the Israeli parliament that would give legal standing to their current de facto control over all Jewish conversions in Israel, which the courts have rejected.

Last month, the Ne’eman Commission appointed by Netanyahu _ named after its chairman, Finance Commissioner Yaakov Ne’eman _ proposed the establishment of separate schools run by the Orthodox, Conservative and Reform movements to prepare candidates for conversion. A panel of Orthodox rabbis would then preside over the actual conversions.


The proposal sought to enable each side in the controversy to claim victory and avoid a legal or legislative showdown some fear would irreparably split the Jewish world into Orthodox and non-Orthodox camps.

Under the proposal, the non-Orthodox movements would have received a modicum of Orthodox recognition and the Orthodox would have retained ultimate control over conversions, which they insist must conform with traditional law.

The Reform and Conservative movements accepted the proposal. But even limited recognition of non-Orthodox Judaism was too much for Israel’s Orthodox establishment to accept.

Reform and Conservative Judaism, said the chief rabbis,”have already brought about disastrous results of assimilation among diaspora Jewry. The sages of Israel have forbidden any cooperation with them and their methods. One cannot consider establishing a joint institute with them.” Despite the strong Orthodox rejection, the power of the chief rabbis to control the outcome of this issue appears to have diminished during the course of the controversy.

Even though Netanyahu needs the Orthodox political parties to maintain his ruling coalition in Israel’s parliamentary system of government, a majority of the Knesset, or parliament, last week voiced its support for the Ne’eman Commission’s proposal. The majority _ 65 out of the 120 Knesset members _ included four members of the Orthodox National Religious Party.

Rabbi Yisrael Rosen, who oversees Israel’s Orthodox rabbic conversion panels, said he believed Orthodox politicians would now back away from attempting to pass a conversion bill in the Knesset.”What we are left with is a court-imposed solution or a technical solution,”he said.


One so-called technical solution already suggested would allow each of the movements to perform their own conversions for civil purposes, with the Orthodox retaining the right to reject the non-Orthodox conversions in the religious sphere.

Civil recognition in Israel is important because those recognized as Jews receive automatic citizenship and a host of government benefits.

However, Rabbi Ismar Schorsch, chancellor of the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York and a leading Conservative voice, said he does not favor a technical solution.”Technical solutions do not serve the individual who also deserves religious recognition. We should allow public pressure to build against the medieval institution of the chief rabbinate, which has weakened itself by its intransigence,”Schorsch said.”The court of public opinion will express enormous displeasure with their obstructionist tactics.” Now that the Ne’eman Commission proposal has been rejected, Israel’s courts are expected to resume their hearing of non-Orthodox demands for equal legal standing with the Orthodox on conversions and other matters.

The first such case scheduled involves non-Orthodox Israeli couples who have adopted non-Jewish children and want to have the youngsters’ conversions to Judaism accepted by the state.

DEA END RNS

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