An urgent session was convened by Chief Sephardi Rabbi Shlomo Amar Shlita on Sunday afternoon in his capacity as Gavaad of the High Rabbinical Court and the final word on giyur. The meeting was called to halt the continued erosion of the nation’s giyur apparatus.
Prompting the urgent session was last week’s High Court of Justice decision ordering the state to allocate equal funding for Reform Movement conversions – to match funds given to Orthodox giyur programs. The state was also ordered to give retroactive payment for three years to the Reform Movement.
Rav Amar is well aware of the reality of such a decision, granting equal recognition to the speedy process of conversion of the Reform Movement as if it is the same as conversion according to halacha. Rav Amar immediately turned to Shomer Mitzvos MKs from the Shas, Yahadut HaTorah and Bayit Yehudi parties to take measures towards circumventing the court’s decision and to prevent the ruling to from creating new realities. The rav warned if the decision is implemented, it can indeed split the nation, drawing an analogy from a situation once presented to David Ben-Gurion by Minister Navon.
Navon explained a young couple was prevented from marrying in a civil ceremony, which he felt was resulting in a chasm between two nations. Ben-Gurion explained that such a wedding would result in a chasm in the Jewish People living in Israel, and this he would not permit. Rav Amar stated the situation today is one in the same, stating if the candidates prepared by the Reform Movement are indeed ‘converted’ to Judaism, it will destroy the Jewish People from within.
Rav Amar told the party representatives that there are literally thousands of applications on the interior minister’s desk from foreign workers, seeking to convert to Judaism with the Reform Movement, realizing it would provide them immediate citizenship and solve many problems. Minister of Religious Services (Shas) Yaakov Margi stated the court ruling will compel all religious communities in Israel to maintain lineage records for future generations to marry within the true Jewish circle.
A decision was made that today, Monday; a preliminary bill will be introduced to Knesset granting sole authority for giyur in the hands of the Chief Rabbinate of Israel. A previous bill aimed at the same results passed its preliminary meeting but was held up in the Knesset Law Committee by MK (Kadima) Menachem Ben-Sasson. As a result, the bill must be introduced in the current 18th Knesset.
In addition to the bill, Shas and Yahadut HaTorah plan to pressure Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to support efforts to implement a work-around for the court’s ruling, which they explain he is compelled to do as per the coalition agreements signed with the chareidi parties.
(Yechiel Spira – YWN Israel)
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4 Responses
The crisis began decades, if not centuries ago.
They only realized it now?
The obvious solution is for frum Jews to refuse to work with, associate it, derive benefit with, etc., Reform Jews or secular Jews.
Of course, this would have rendered zionism impossible, and would have rendered a “Jewish” state impossible.
Charedim have got to go to the wall on this one.
That includes our MP’s and ministers in Netanyahu’s treif government.
If you want to have a “state religion”, then religious doctrines are determined by the state. If you have an “official” yihus book, the secular Jews will define who is included. Whether an unofficial “registry” would be of value is questionable, since frum Jews of different gropus frequently marry (Hasidim-Litvaks, Yeminites-Yekkes, etc.), and the standard everyone has always used is to ask if the person acts frum (a standard under which most Israelis, fail). In the situation (not uncommon among Baalei Tseuvah) that someone frum discovers they aren’t Jewish, conversion is not a problem.
Lineage records are worthless over time since traditionally converts’ origins are deliberately hidden. This has been our tradition for centuries.
A very strong argument can be made that halacha prohibits discrimination against converts and their descendants (and if DNA evidence is to be believed, virtually every Jews is descended from converts). Jews in Eretz Yisrael constantly move in and out of Eretz Yisrael (and always have), so only a central authority record would be of any use, and for good reason, we have no central authority (unless one wants to hold the Israeli government is the central authority of Klal Yisrael, has ve-shalom).
Many have argued that the reason that organized religion flourished in America, unlike Europe, is lack of government control. Unless you are in a situation in which most people in Eretz Yisrael are Bnei Torah, we should support cutting any and all ties with the government and concentrate on demanding only that they respect our autonomy. We can tell who is Jewish enough to marry our children by looking at them without having to check a government ID card.
We must go back to the Yovel book. A written and computerized record should be kept of Jewish births.