The cabinet decision on Sunday 18 Tammuz decided to dissolve the giyur reforms set into place in the previous administration. Opposition leader MK Yitzchak Herzog is among the critics of that decision, warning “The decision is a declaration of war on the future of Jewry in Israel”.
On Sunday the cabinet eliminated the giyur reforms that were voted into law by the 19th Knesset based on the bill from former MK Elazar Stern. The previous administration voted to liberalize state religious services, including state conversions.
During a faction meeting of the Zionist Camp (Labor), Herzog lamented the decision, which he feels threatens the future of the Jewish People, warning one day the decision may be quite costly.
He explained that “we are used to blows to democracy but this was also a blow to the Jewry”.
He added that the decision to transfer authority for the nation’s batei din from the Justice Ministry to the Ministry of Religious Services is no less severe, decrying how the Netanyahu-led administration simply ignores the cries of so many who wish to be a part of the nation but their cries are ignored “leading to a split in society”.
Tzipi Livni added that while Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu speaks in lofty terms, the decision taken by his cabinet delivered a blow to the character of the Jewish State as the national Jewish homeland. “Netanyahu turned it into the nation for the chareidi parties”.
(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
Join the official YWN WhatsApp status
3 Responses
Sorry MK Yitzchak Herzog but if are not born by Jewish parents, just like you can’t become the prime minister without the process of election etc. the same way you can’t become a Jew without the process of giyur. you could become a Israeli by the process of getting a document from the government but not a Jew.
We owe Mr. Herzog “thanks” for his concern for the future of Jewry MORE than the rabbis and scholars and true leaders and greats of our nation to whom giyur is being entrusted.
But MK Herzog has exposed his fallacy. He said ““we are used to blows to democracy”. Presumably this means the democratically elected legislators who pass laws the Opposition disagrees with, are ruining democracy. By the same “validity” he decries this “blow” to Jewry.
Now that we have heard from Herzog and Livni,
can this media also bring us some encouraging words from some real leaders?
What ?