While Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu toppled the Giyur Bill by removing it from the cabinet’s agenda, the bill’s sponsor, The Movement party, is advancing the bill via the Ministerial Law Committee and then hopes to pass it in Knesset. The Knesset committee convened on Monday 3 Marcheshvan, with MK (The Movement) Elazar Stern pushing to have it passed to prepare it for a vote in Knesset. The chareidim are working hard to prevent the bill from passing amid the realization they will not be able to prevent the ministerial committee from approving the bill.
Yahadut Hatorah’s MK Moshe Gafne explained to committee members that Stern has taken upon himself a bill that will literally divide the Jewish People. He warns the bill will result in turmoil and must controversy as to who is Jewish and who is not. Gafne added that the passing of the bill will have a devastating impact and the damage it causes will be irreversible.
He directed his anger at Yesh Atid, explaining “when one is in pain one cries out and I am in pain. You can laugh for among you politicians it is laughable but tomorrow, you will be gone and my tzibur will remain. You think this legislation is going to buy you votes. The Jewish People is no fool. You are working to destroy us. I am trying to preserve the Jewish People which belongs to all of us while some are seeking to harm the people”.
Gafni turned to committee chair MK (Yisrael Beitenu) David Rotem saying “I think you should not try to push this through as is being done but to bring the bill back for discussion. I am asking you as chairman to open the floor for continued discussion towards finding a process that will not carry such destruction. At the very least permit them to listen”.
Most predict the committee will approve the bill, which will then pass in Knesset. It should be added that Arab MKs on Monday morning, Arab MKs on the committee refused to take part in the discussion.
(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
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10 Responses
Just shows how Israeli politians put selfinterest before the good of country.
Very good advise, MK Gafni.
Mr Gafni, thank-you for pointing out the truth. I want to hear how all those Bayit Yehudit fans can justify their party’s selling out yiddishkeit.
I feel terrible for the potential converts who will become the equivalent of “Eved Canani status ” under this law.
Last nights levaya shud serve as a reminder and a warning that if chas vesholom the giyur bill passes the way these chilonim want it to; then pure neshamos being megayer like that of karen yemima a”h are gonna be rare and few.
#3- What are you going on about? HaBayit HaYehudi opposes the bill presented by MK Stern. All of its MKs will be voting against it.
Define: Bayit HaYehudit strongly opposes this bill.
#5 #6
Really?
Do you work for the party’s PR?
Do you need to do search on Yeshivaworldnews or Google?
Do you work for the party’s PR?
Bennet,Shaked and Ben Dahan were strongly supporting the Bill almost from it’s inception.
.
When they sniffed which way the wind was blowing from ‘less religious’ Netanyahu and then followed by Tekuma they have done a loud about face
Everyone is confident it’s temporary they’ll come aboard once more the moment it’s becomes politically viable)
Stern’s Giyur Bill Passes Preliminary Vote in Knesset –
(Thursday, November 7th, 2013)
The Knesset on Wednesday, 3 Kislev 5774 passed the Stern bill in its preliminary reading in a 45-16 vote. The bill seeks to establish nationwide giyur centers. If the bill passes its first, second and third readings it becomes law. This would result in permitting rabbonim nationwide to perform conversions, essentially taking the process out of the control of the Chief Rabbinate of Israel.
According to Stern this is not the case as he feels his modified giyur process serves to strengthen state-controlled giyur. He adds “I am not embarrassed to say there are some who feel the process will include leniencies. To the best of my knowledge, the chief rabbis are on board.
MK Yitzchak Vaknin, who was serving as speaker presiding over the session corrected Stern, informing him the Chief Rabbi is not backing his bill was is evident from the Chief Rabbinate statement.
Minister of Religious Services Naftali Bennett supports the Stern bill, explaining “we remain committed to improving religious services. Dialogue is the key and any unilateral actions taken will be vetoed by us. At day’s end we are a Jewish nation and legislation will be in line with Halacha while it must also be good for the State of Israel.”
“In this case it is good as the partnership with MK Stern and Deputy Minister of Religious Services Rabbi Eli Ben-Dahan have used dialogue to coordinate regarding Halacha and this is good for the State of Israel. Therefore the cabinet is supportive. However, anyone who believes there will be civil marriage that is not in line with Halacha is mistaken.”
MK Moshe Gafne, who opposed the bill, explains from his perspective, the bill is not in line with Halacha. He accuses Bennett of doing things that are against Halacha. Gafne adds the letter from Rabbi Dov Lior Shlita instructs him not to support the bill, as do other dati leumi rabbonim.
Considering this statement from Yagel Libi-
While Yesh Atid is certainly looking to revise the status quo it is NOT ‘looking to destroy yiddishkheit’. Amongst the revisions that Yesh Atid is talking about you will also find enhancing the study of Torah amongst chilonim and requiring all Jewish students to study Talmud. If that is not enough, consider that two of their MKs are orthodox rabbis and that other MKs are orthodox and traditional Jews. One can certainly disagree with the merits of several of their proposals, or even with all of them, but such incendiary reporting serves no good purpose whatsoever. –
all else falls into place
#7-9: I’ll assume that you are not being malicious and that you are writing merely out of confusion between two proposals.
HaBayit HaYehudi has certainly been in favor of making changes to the Giyur bureaucracy in Israel which, they feel, is standing in the way of many potential sincere gerim. When MK Stern first presented the draft version of his bill, even though HaBayit HaYehudi had reservations regarding specific provisions, it joined in the process of negotiating better language that would ensure strict adherence to halacha, from the point of view that such an amended bill would indeed be a blessing for am yisrael. Their representatives negotiated for language that they were comfortable with and then MK Stern, who realized that the coalition was going to back HaBayit HaYehudi’s proposal and not his, decided to attempt to force his version through the legislative process. First, he asked for his proposal to be brought before the ministerial committee for legislation but Bibi blocked that at the insistence of HaBayit HaYehudi. Stern then brought his proposal directly to the Knesset committee as a private bill rather than as a bill proposed by the government as he understood that he would not get the government’s support for his language. HaBayit Hayehudi opposes this and will vote against the bill as presented.
I hope that helps clarify the confusion.
As for Yesh Atid, I have not changed my mind. It should be made clear that the machloket about the Giyur bill is not about adherence to halacha per se – even the Stern bill proposes only orthodox conversions by orthodox rabbis. The issue is that the great majority of D”L rabbis and HaBayit HaYehudi think that the language of the Stern bill does not contain strict enough safeguards for such a crucial issue, while MK Stern and his supporters (including those from Yesh Adid) think that the fears of their detractors are simply unrealistic. It is obvious that orthodox MKs, including minister harav Piron (who studied for dayanut and headed a yeshiva high school) and, for that matter, MK Stern (who is not a member of Yesh Atid), have no intention or desire to ‘undermine yiddishkiet’. It is one thing to disagree with their judgement. I disagree with them myself. But it is merely malicious to attribute evil intentions to them.