WUNRN
http://www.haaretz.com/jewish-world/shavuot/.premium-1.596576 – June
3, 2014
ISRAEL - No Civil
Marriage - Religious Rules Prevail.
Full Article: http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2015/08/israel-conversion-chief-rabbinate-ultra-orthodox-reform.html
Israel - New Conversion Initiative Splits
Israel Rabbis
Author: Mordechai Goldman - August 13,
2015
The great immigration wave from the former
Soviet Union in the 1990s brought approximately 1 million Russian speakers to
Israel. Some were born to non-Jewish mothers, and thus are not viewed as Jews according to Jewish halacha
(religious law) in which religion is determined by the mother. It is estimated
that there are around 100,000 children and teenagers under age 18 from the
former Soviet bloc who live in Israel and are categorized as having “no
religion.” They are growing up in Israeli society with distinctly Jewish
identities, yet lack one key component: a clear religious identity. Modern
Orthodox rabbis remain dedicated to implementing the conversion law adopted in
2014 — repealed by the current government — which aims to facilitate the
process of converting minors. Beyond the identity issue, members of this group
are likely to encounter difficult hurdles in the future, mainly with regard to
marriage, family status and burial. That is because in Israel, the various
religious establishments (Jewish, Christian, Muslim and Druze) are in charge of these three domains,
as there are no civil marriages in Israel.
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http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Facing-the-reality-of-intermarriage-and-assimilation-in-Israel-407895
ISRAEL–DIVISIVE CONVERSION ISSUE - MAJOR
EFFECT ON INTER-MARRIAGE & NON-JEWISH CHILDREN’S IDENTITY
A Jewish wedding..
(photo credit:ILLUSTRATIVE PHOTO: WWW.GOISRAEL.COM)
Two years ago,
Israel’s Supreme Court, in its ruling on a very difficult conversion case –
sadly one of many that have not been resolved adequately – demanded that the
Israeli government create laws that would standardize conversions. The current
intolerable situation has meant that the complete mandate for conversions,
which is such an important issue in Israel and the Jewish world, has been at
the discretion of the Chief Rabbinate.
Sadly, the government, especially this one, has no intention or interest in
dealing with the issue, which leaves so many Israelis who want to join our
people, serve in the military, and contribute to this country, in agonizing
limbo.
Moreover, the longer this issue is unresolved, the more of a problem it will be
for Israel’s Jewish future.
For the first time, Israel and the Diaspora, specifically the US, share a
concern about assimilation and intermarriage.
A few recent conversations I had with close friends demonstrated to me that
intermarriage is all too real in Israel.
Many
of these friends are religious-Zionist Jews and they will have halachically
non-Jewish grandchildren. Some told me that their daughters-in-law have tried
to convert on numerous occasions, but were turned off or turned away by an
increasingly coercive rabbinate.
Just in case one might assume that my groups of friends are statistically
unrepresentative, just think that 8 percent of the so-called “Jewish
population” in Israel is not in fact Jewish and there are well over 100,000
Israelis below the age of 18 who are not halachically Jewish, but whose parents
came under the Law of Return.
We cannot leave this problem to our children, but must act now, because this
phenomenon has the ability to have a lasting effect on Israel as the national
homeland of the Jewish people.
During the last Knesset, I introduced a law that was intended to make
conversion less problematic and bureaucratic, and allow municipal rabbis to
establish their own conversion courts. It would also have made it illegal to
discriminate against converts and would end the unacceptably frightening
prospect of voiding conversions after they are performed.
The Chief Rabbinate would no longer be the central entity controlling
conversion, but will be reduced to a largely regulatory body in charge of
testing and licensing rabbis who wish to perform conversions.
Unfortunately, this and other reforms relating to religion and state are to be
undone in the current coalition owing to the demands made by the ultra-Orthodox
parties, with the cooperation of the prime minister and the quiet acquiescence
of the national-religious Bayit Yehudi party.
However, Israel’s Jewish future should not be hijacked as a mere political
demand in coalition negotiations.
We need to create a new movement that demands a restructuring of the religious
institutions in Israel and makes them more in line with Jewish law and Zionist
ethos.
Perhaps we should revisit the concept of zera yisrael (seed of Israel) in a
more serious manner. According to many halachic sources, the children of a
Jewish father are not gentiles in the full sense and we may seek their
conversion.
Rabbi Benzion Uziel, the first Sephardi chief rabbi of Israel, ruled that when
a Jewish father brings his young male child from a gentile mother to a
religious court for conversion, the court is duty-bound to convert him. Even
Rabbi Moshe Isserles, the Rama, cites the famed Tosafist known as the Ohr
Zarua, who speculated as to whether a son born to a gentile mother and Jewish
father is considered to be in the category of one who is at least “rabbinically
Jewish,” even though he is not Jewish biblically .
In 21st-century Israel, we have adopted a rigid form of Judaism unknown to our
ancestors who sought answers to difficult questions by taking into account
differing opinions and circumstances.
Unfortunately, our beautiful traditions have become tainted in the eyes of many
secular Israelis, whose only interaction sometimes is through the authorities
who mandate marriage, divorce, burial, and kashrut. We need a strong
reconsideration as to how to use these very same issues to include, rather than
exclude, and unite around our identity rather than it be used as a point of
division.
This form of Judaism has also become a divisive identity for many of our
children in seeking to extol the meaning of Zionism as we move towards the
third generation since the reestablishment of Jewish sovereignty in our
ancestral homeland.
However, unless we make Judaism more accessible and welcoming, this principle
will be lost on future generations and they will begin to question why we fight
to remain here in an increasingly tortuous Middle East. We need to ensure that
every Israeli, and every Jew, finds their place in the Jewish state and feels
secure in their peoplehood in a welcoming manner.
To begin this return to normative Judaism, we need to deal with the important
question of what do with those who sincerely want to join our people.
Once again, the Supreme Court is forced to deal with an issue of conversion,
this time, the nine year wait of Martina Ragacova to have her Orthodox
conversion recognized by the State of Israel. The panel of nine Supreme Court
Justices have termed this case a “tragedy,” not just for Ragacova, but unless
properly and completely resolved, for the entire Jewish people.
The writer was a member of the 19th Knesset and the founder of the Nativ
program, which has facilitated the conversion of more than 8,500 young Israelis
during and after their army service.