Israeli Court Forbids Bias on Converts : U.S. Woman Wins Recognition for Non-Orthodox Rite

Israel’s Supreme Court barred authorities today from discriminating against converts to Judaism in a decision that averted a potential clash with millions of American Jews.

The court ruled that the Interior Ministry could not stamp the word “convert” on the identity papers of a Christian-born American woman who migrated to Israel after converting to Reform Judaism in 1981.

The decision in favor of 43-year-old Shoshana Miller was a relief to Reform and Conservative Jews abroad who were concerned that the label would exclude thousands of converts from ever being recognized as full-fledged Jews.

“I’m so happy. Now I can get on with my life. This is the end of a very bad dream,” Miller said through tears.

About 12,000 Americans convert to Judaism each year, all but 1,000 of them through Reform or Conservative rabbis whose more liberal interpretations of Jewish law have a large following abroad but lack authority in Israel.

Rabbi Uri Regev, a leader of the tiny Reform movement in Israel, told a news conference that the court decision “would reaffirm the commitment of Israel to the Jewish people in its entirety.”

The stocky, tousle-haired Miller converted to Judaism in 1981 in Colorado and emigrated to Israel last year. She said she was first drawn to Judaism when she read the “Diary of Anne Frank,” about Jews under Nazi occupation.

Ultra-Orthodox Interior Minister Yitzhak Peretz initially rejected her application to become an Israeli under the Law of Return which grants automatic citizenship to Jews. The reason: She was converted by a Reform rabbi. Israel’s Orthodox Jewish leaders have tried for years to amend the statute so that conversions performed by non-Orthodox rabbis would not be recognized.

When Miller refused suggestions that she undergo a new conversion with an Orthodox rabbi, the authorities insisted on stamping “convert” on her identity papers.

Supreme Court Justice Meir Shamgar said in a 14-page ruling that efforts of the Interior Ministry to differentiate between Miller and other Jews were unlawful and would “undermine the unity of the Jewish people.”