The ABC’s of Conversion to Judaism in Israel

UPDATES

8:00 am Israel time, Tuesday, July 7 2015

**Immigration to Israel surges even more:

400 new immigrants from France are now arriving every week in Israel. This coupled with an expected 15,000 new immigrants from the Ukraine and Russia during the remainder of this year means that we can now expect some 35,000 to 40,000 new immigrants this year–many of whom by the way are young families with children.

**Israelis traveling abroad also surges:

During July and August, authorities predict an 11% increase in Israelis traveling abroad. In July alone, 1.56 million Israelis will be passing through Ben Gurion airport on their way to various locations. To put it a different way, 1 out of every 8 Israelis will be going on vacation.

What are their destinations? Greece, Italy, France, Germany, and the United States.

All told, more than 3.2 million passengers (Israelis and tourists) will be transiting through Ben Gurion this month and next.

**Who are these Islamic State terrorists?

Would you believe that these motley characters are Israeli-Arab Bedouins who have been teaching in Israeli schools in the Negev. Teaching what you may ask? Teaching kids that they should go join Islamic State.

They were all arrested by Israel’s Shin Bet service yesterday.

**Syria: who is fighting for Assad?

The latest estimates are that of the 300,000 soldiers that Assad had under his command at the outset of the war some five years ago, only about 60,000 remain. Many have died; many others have defected.

However, to somewhat take their place, Iran has brought in nearly 85,000 Shi’ite mercenaries that it has recruited from various locations. The Iranians are paying each mercenary about $500 per month.

The obviously interesting point is that there are now more Shi’ite mercenaries fighting for Assad in Syria than there are Syrian soldiers.

**How long will it be before terrorism strikes Eilat?

Interior Minister Silvan Shalom approved a plan yesterday to bring 500 Jordanian workers to work in Eilat each day–a number that will gradually increase to 1500. The Jordanians are expected to be employed in “cleaning, housekeeping, and dish-washing” jobs.

The worker permits are “day permits” meaning that the workers will return to Aqaba each night.

Sure they will.

Just like the 30,000+ Palestinians who are supposed to return to Judea and Samaria each night–but instead shack up all over the place.

Shalom blathered this nonsense yesterday: “. . . this is a step that can benefit and contribute to ties between the two countries.”

What a joke. Almost certainly, terrorists will infiltrate from Jordan, and the thought that giving Jordanians menial jobs in Israeli hotels serving “Jews” will contribute to Israel-Jordan ties is absurd. More likely, it will merely inspire more hatred.

TODAY’S BLOG:

Conversion to Judaism has always been an intriguing subject. In the Torah, a person was born a Jew if his or her father was a Jew. This situation lasted at least down to the time of around 200 BCE when during the Greek conquest and occupation of Judea, a person’s Jewishness became determined by his or her mother. This change presumably occurred because of a shortage of males–and because of the Greek push to assimilate their soldiers into the population with Jewish women.

Let’s take a look today at the controversy in Israel–and among international Jewry–concerning what has just happened with the conversion law here. Conservative and reform Jews are especially upset, but do they really have a reason to be?

First the context:

There are some 330,000 Israeli citizens from the former Soviet Union who have immigrated to Israel by virtue of having a Jewish grandparent–but who are not recognized as “Jewish” by the country because their mothers were/are not Jewish.  Because of they are not recognized as being “Jewish”, they have major disadvantages such as an inability to get married inside the country.

The conversion process here is strict. It involves a process that normally takes about three years to complete involving Hebrew language proficiency, extensive religious knowledge, and a demonstration that one is leading a “Jewishly” religious life. There are no shortcuts, and each conversion is conducted under the guidance of an orthodox rabbi.

As to the current controversy, allow me to lay out the facts in sequential order:

1. Prior to November 2, 2014, each person wishing to convert to Judaism in Israel had to do so through one of four orthodox “courts” in the country. Obviously the courts were run by orthodox rabbis as aforestated, and every conversion was done under the direct supervision of the Chief Rabbinate.
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2. On November 2, 2014, the government passed “the conversion reform law”–a law that did not go through the Knesset but was merely “a government order.” This law took the conversion process out of the hands of the Chief Rabbinate, and put it into the hands of rabbis in each municipality. Each one of those municipal rabbis–all of whom were orthodox–was empowered to set up his own “conversion court.”

The idea behind the law was that the municipal rabbis might be more flexible (read “more liberal”) in performing conversions than ones from the Chief Rabbinate. To put it another way, the hope was that the 330,000 Israeli citizens from the former Soviet Union might find an easier path to conversion.

3. By January of this year, it became apparent that Israel’s Ministry of Religious Affairs was refusing to implement the new law by refusing to process the applications of municipal rabbis who wanted to set up their own conversion courts.

4. Everything was put on hold while the Israeli election took place.

5. Following the election, PM Netanyahu formed a coalition government which included the two orthodox religious parties, Shas (Sephardic) and United Torah Judaism (Ashkenazi). As part of their agreement to join the coalition, both parties demanded that the conversion reform law be repealed. Netanyahu agreed.

6. Two days ago, on Sunday, the Cabinet canceled the law. Interestingly, the law’s most vehement supporter, Education Minister Naftali Bennett, is himself a “modern orthodox Jew” fought bitterly against the law’s repeal in that cabinet meeting.

So where does this leave us?

Back to the way it was before November 2 of 2014.

But remember that so far we have only been talking about conversions in Israel. 

It turns out that Israel’s Interior Ministry does accept, as the basis of aliya to this country, conversions performed by non-Orthodox rabbis (i.e. Conservative and Reform rabbis).

Ironically, however, it does not accept as the basis for aliya, conversions performed by Orthodox rabbis outside of Israel. All applicants for aliya who have undergone an orthodox conversion supervised by such a rabbi must be approved by the Chief Rabbinate. To tackle this situation, the Jewish Agency here in Israel has recently announced an initiative to send Israeli Orthodox rabbis abroad to perform conversions abroad that will meet the Chief Rabbinate’s approval. 

So back to my original question: do conservative and reform Jews outside of Israel have a reason to be upset?  Only in the sense that they had hoped that “the conversion reform law” would eventually lead down the slippery slope to conservative and reform conversions here in Israel.

That is not going to happen. 

But are they stopped from performing conversions in their own communities outside of Israel? Of course not. 

In your humble servant’s opinion, they have little reason to complain.