From Rabbi Rachel Bat-Or

August 2010
Av-Elul 5770

In the middle of July the Israeli Knesset began the process of voting a conversion bill into law. The main sponsor of the bill is MP David Rotem from Israel Beteinu, a party that was formed to help Russian Jews become Israeli Citizens. Rotem says the bill would make the conversion process much simpler. Converts could choose rabbis in their local communities to study with rather than having a centralized conversion process. This would make that part easier but the bill also contains some parts that would give ultimate authority to the central Israeli Rabbinate to decide who is actually a Jew. From their past actions we know that means people who observe Judaism according to the strictest understanding of Jewish law. 

If this bill passed it would be a huge problem in Israel because most converts do not plan to strictly observe Jewish law. It would be equally problematic in the Diaspora. It could mean that only Jews from the Diaspora who are strictly observant could become an Israeli citizen. That would keep most Conservative, Reform and Reconstructionist Jews from becoming Israeli citizens and would negate the purpose of the Law of Return which allows anyone who is one quarter Jewish to become a citizen of  Israel.

When this bill came out of committee and was about to be voted on by the entire Knesset, all of the non-Orthodox Jewish denominations came together and lobbied to stop this bill from becoming law. This was a remarkable feat for usually contentious factions. The togetherness worked. 

While the law is not completely dead, it was at least dead for the legislative term that ended July 21st. The biggest victory was Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s statement to his cabinet on July 18th: the bill “could tear apart the Jewish people.” This is a stunning success based on how important the ultraorthodox Jews are to Netanyahu’s coalition government.

As a rabbi, I, of course, would love to see more Jews observe more Jewish laws but I also believe that we do our best in everything when we are given choices. Why would that be different in observing Judaism? 

There has never been a time when every Jew has observed every commandment. One of my friends in Israel is an Orthodox rabbi who says every Jew is in some way a Reform Jew. Every one of us chooses to observe some commandments and not other ones. 

The future of Judaism is choice. We need to be sure that every-body who wants to join the Jewish people will be able to do that. We need to be sure that any Diaspora Jew who wants to become an Israeli citizen can do that. Of course it’s our hope as a people that we each can continually find more meaningful ways to observe our religion but only if we have those choices.

We have to continue to put pressure on Prime Minister Netanyahu to be sure this bill does not pass. Please contact him at this address:  http://www.masorti.org/email/form-letter.html