Israel’s High Court Loosens Strictures on Conversions

In a potentially precedent-setting decision, Israel’s Supreme Court on Thursday ruled that under certain circumstances the state must recognize resident foreigners’ conversions to Judaism by non-Orthodox rabbis.

Although limited in scope, the ruling was seen as eroding the near-absolute control over religious affairs in Israel by the Orthodox establishment.

Within hours of the decision, the ultra-Orthodox political party Shas had gathered the 25 lawmakers’ signatures needed to bring the Knesset, or parliament, out of recess. The legislative body will convene a special session next week to debate the ruling and possibly weigh legislation to dilute its effect.

The Orthodox monopoly over religious conversions in Israel has long been closely watched by American Jews, most of whom belong to the Reform or Conservative streams of Judaism. The case also holds significant implications for claims of Israeli citizenship, to which all Jews are entitled under Israel’s Law of Return.

Currently, those who undergo Conservative or Reform conversion while living outside Israel are eligible to seek citizenship under the Law of Return. But inside Israel, the only conversions recognized by the state are those performed by Orthodox rabbis.

Although the consequences of the ruling may eventually be far-reaching, only a relatively small number of people are immediately affected by the decision. The case was brought six years ago by 17 foreigners living in Israel who underwent Reform or Conservative conversion courses in the country but then traveled abroad to have the process finalized.

In Israel, both Reform and Conservative conversion courses take about a year to complete. But the more rigorous Orthodox ones closely monitor prospective converts’ adherence to ritual practices such as keeping kosher.

The practice of leaving the country to get around the need to obtain Orthodox blessing for becoming Jewish is known here, somewhat irreverently, as “pop-over” conversion. The citizenship requests of the converts who brought the case were rejected on the grounds that the applicants were already living in Israel when they began the process.

Orthodox religious authorities denounced the high court ruling, saying it would encourage conversions undertaken merely as a means of obtaining Israeli citizenship.

“The bottom line is that people seeking conversion to Judaism can hop on a plane to a foreign country and obtain a certificate in a day,” Chief Rabbi Yona Metzger told Israel Radio.

“Why trouble a person to get on a plane? Why not convert him by fax?” the chief rabbi added sarcastically.

But secular-minded politicians, along with leaders of the Reform and Conservative movements, said the court verdict amounted to an embrace of the broader Jewish community, both worldwide and within Israel.

“This is an historic breakthrough, ... which dictates that [non-Orthodox] Jews will cease to be the stepchildren of the Jewish people,” said lawmaker Eti Livni of the secular-rights Shinui Party.

Supporters of the court ruling said that even with a relaxation of Orthodox control over conversion, few resident foreigners would be likely to undertake the process solely for the economic and social benefits of becoming an Israeli. They also pointed out that only foreigners with legal residence, not workers in the country clandestinely, would be eligible to seek citizenship after converting.

In a token of the gravity with which the case was viewed, an unusually large panel of justices took part in the 7-4 ruling, and the opinion was written by Chief Justice Aharon Barak.

The court ruling did not specifically address the status of the approximately 250 people who convert to Judaism in Israel annually under Conservative or Reform auspices, but activists said they hoped Thursday’s ruling would open the door to establishing the validity of their procedures as well.

Interior Minister Ophir Pines-Paz, affiliated with the left-leaning Labor Party, said the court decision would be immediately implemented. The Interior Ministry is the main overseer of matters relating to citizenship and residency.

Pines-Paz “doesn’t think the state of Israel should put obstacles in the way of those who want with all their hearts to be part of the Jewish people,” said his spokesman, Gilad Heiman.

Many non-Orthodox Jews chafe at religious restrictions imposed by Israel’s powerful Orthodox establishment, whose rabbis have sole authority to preside over weddings, grant divorces and officiate at religious burials.

The head of the Conservative movement in Israel, Rabbi Ehud Bandel, called the court ruling a victory, but only a partial one.

“The significance of this decision is the winning of a battle, but the war isn’t over yet,” Bandel said.

Rabbi Eric H. Yoffie, president of the Union for Reform Judaism, which represents 1.5 million people in America’s largest Jewish denomination, called the ruling a “blessing.”

He said it marked the start of religious freedom in Israel, and predicted it would begin to draw into Judaism some of Israel’s 250,000 non-Jewish citizens. “It makes no sense for the Jewish state to be the one place in the world that discriminates against two of the three major Jewish religious denominations,” Yoffie said.

“Now we’re seeing Israel moving back toward freedom.”

Yitzchok Adlerstein, an Orthodox rabbi and Jewish law professor in Los Angeles, called the court ruling “tragic.” By recognizing some non-Orthodox conversions, he said, the ruling would in effect begin to separate the Jewish people in Israel into those who stringently follow religious law and those who don’t.

“A separation barrier is being built within the Jewish state,” he said.

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Times staff writer Teresa Watanabe in Los Angeles contributed to this report.