Deri lambasted for conversion law, giving Chief Rabbinate total control

Shas leader proposes to revoke all legal status for non-state conversions, leading to outcry from moderate religious-Zionist and non-Orthodox rabbis.

By JEREMY SHARON
INTERIOR MINISTER Arye Deri at the Knesset (photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM/THE JERUSALEM POST)
INTERIOR MINISTER Arye Deri at the Knesset
(photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM/THE JERUSALEM POST)
Shas leader and Interior Minister Aryeh Deri has been lambasted from several quarters for introducing explosive legislation which would grant the Chief Rabbinate a total monopoly over Jewish conversion in Israel.
The conversion issue has been the source of several crises with Diaspora Jewry, the latest in 2017, and Deri’s bill could reignite the controversy once again.
Currently, Reform and Masorti (Conservative) conversions performed in Israel are recognized by the Population and Immigration Authority of the Interior Ministry for the purposes of being registered as Jewish in the population registry.
Additionally, Orthodox conversions performed in independent, non-state rabbinical courts are also recognized for registration as Jewish and for citizenship under the Law of Return if they are not Israeli nationals.
Neither independent Orthodox nor non-Orthodox conversions are, however, recognized by the Chief Rabbinate for the purposes of marriage or any other matter.
Individuals who undergo Reform or Masorti conversions in Israel cannot currently get citizenship if they are not already Israeli, however, a decision on a High Court petition that these denominations filed demanding such rights for their converts is still pending.
Deri’s law would overturn all these rights for non-state converts and grant legal status only to converts through the state rabbinical courts.
Rabbi David Stav, head of the religious-Zionist Tzohar rabbinical association, said in response that the state conversion system “has collapsed” and was controlled by “ultra-Orthodox politicos who are not interested in conversion.”
He added that the conversion crisis in Israel was getting worse since the number of conversions performed by the state courts are declining while the number of Jewish Israelis who are not Jewish according to Jewish law is rising.
“The situation will get even worse with the waves of immigration that will come soon,” he continued in reference to expected increases in immigration to Israel from the Diaspora due to COVID-19, and the fact that approximately two thirds of immigrants from the former Soviet Union are not Jewish according to Jewish law, and comprise the majority of immigrants today.
“Only [by] giving municipal chief rabbis the authority to perform conversions will we have a friendly and effective conversion process. Monopolies in every field only causes destruction and corruption.”
Yisrael Beytenu leader MK Avigdor Liberman, whose constituency of voters from the former Soviet Union is extremely sensitive to conversion issues, said that Deri’s law was the “continuation of the harassment of immigrants from the former Soviet Union by the Interior Ministry which he heads.”
This week it was revealed that the Interior Ministry’s policy of conducting unprompted Jewish status investigations into citizens from the former Soviet Union has resulted in the suspension of Jewish status of 2,200 Israeli children.
Communications Minister and Derech Eretz MK Yoaz Hendel who spoke out strongly during the election campaigns on the necessity of full state recognition, including by the Chief Rabbinate, of independent Orthodox conversions, declined to comment on Deri’s proposal.
MK Matan Kahana of the New Right Party was however critical of Deri’s proposed legislation, saying that a new law on conversion was needed but one which would “bring relief for hundreds of thousands of Israeli citizens [who are not Jewish according to Jewish law] and does not block the entrance gate to Judaism for those who want it.”
Kahana’s party colleague, Bezalel Smotrich said, however, that he backed the legislation, arguing that conversion was “a national matter concerning Jewish law which touches on the essence of our existence as a people and therefore must be done by the state and the Chief Rabbinate.”
He added that he would “not allow the recognition of Reform and Conservative conversions.”
Director of the Masorti Movement in Israel, Dr. Yizhar Hess, said that “Minister Deri is again trying to force on Israel the stringent ultra-Orthodox standards of conversion instead of allowing the State of Israel to be more Jewish and more democratic through the free choice of different forms of Judaism. The ultra-Orthodox veto is making the State of Israel far less Jewish.”


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