Sometime before the end of this year, the Knesset will begin discussing a new bill designed to encourage more citizens of the state who are not officially recognized as Jewish to undergo conversions. If passed, it would be the first time Israel has ever introduced legislation governing the thorny issue of conversion – though it would not be the first time it has tried.
The bill, being drafted by Religious Services Minister Matan Kahana, is in the final stages of preparation. The plan is to submit it for approval once the budget is passed in mid-November. Because it was part the coalition agreement signed in June by members of Israel’s current government, the bulk of the conversion bill is already public knowledge.
What the coalition agreement stipulates is that a law will be passed to allow municipal rabbis to perform conversions. What it does not say – but what is clearly implied – is that the Chief Rabbinate will be effectively stripped of its monopoly over conversions, at least within the context of which converts are allowed to marry in Israel.
The idea is to create a more “customer-friendly” conversion system by opening it up to competition and allowing a wider assortment of rabbis to be involved.
The hope is that this will eventually lead to a dramatic increase in the number of conversions performed.
“Because the Chief Rabbinate enjoy a monopoly today, it feels no reason to institute any changes in the system,” says Tani Frank, director of the Judaism and State Policy Center at the Shalom Hartman Institute, Jerusalem. “But if there are more alternatives available, it makes sense that some of these alternatives will be more lenient.”
Kahana’s main motivation is to combat what he is wont to describe as the “growing rate of intermarriage” in Israel. By intermarriage, he does not mean Jews marrying Christians or Muslims, but rather Jews marrying the estimated 400,000-500,000 Israelis who are categorized by the Population Registry as “Other” or “No religion.”
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The overwhelming majority of them are immigrants or children of immigrants from the former Soviet Union who qualified for the Law of Return because they had at least one Jewish grandparent, but are not considered halakhically Jewish because their mothers weren’t Jewish.
Even within Orthodoxy, there are debates about how much of a commitment to Torah observance is required of converts. The Chief Rabbinate has determined that it needs to be a very big commitment – which is why many citizens who are not halakhically Jewish choose not to convert.
However, not all Orthodox rabbis agree with the Rabbinate’s stance.
The stringent standards the Rabbinate imposes, many of them believe, deter potential converts. Indeed, only a few thousand citizens convert every year – a very small share considering the potential. Even among those who enroll in the national conversion program (which is sanctioned by the Rabbinate), the dropout rate is very high.
Who will be responsible for conversions under the new law? What kind of conversions will be allowed? And can the Rabbinate block it? Here are the answers to these and other key questions….
Religious Services Minster Matan Kahana at a conference in Jerusalem earlier this year.Ohad Zwigenberg
What are the current rules or procedures regarding conversion in Israel?
It is important to distinguish between those converts who are recognized as Jewish under the Law of Return – meaning they are eligible to immigrate to Israel and become citizens – and those who are recognized as Jewish by the Rabbinate, meaning that can get married in Israel. Any individual who has converted in a “recognized” Jewish community abroad and fulfilled certain basic requirements is eligible to immigrate to Israel under the Law of Return and become a citizen, regardless of the denominational affiliation of the converting rabbis.
In other words, conversions undertaken by Reform and Conservative rabbis are also recognized under the Law of Return. This also applies to noncitizens who undergo conversions in Israel (according to a landmark High Court of Justice ruling handed down last March).
But only individuals who have converted through overseas rabbis approved by the Rabbinate or through local conversion courts sanctioned by it can register to marry in Israel. There are currently 10 conversion courts in Israel that operate under the auspices of the Rabbinate, each with three judges picked by its representatives. A representative of the Rabbinate also signs every conversion certificate issued by the state. The Rabbinate only approves Orthodox conversions performed according to halakha (Jewish religious law).
There are other organizations and movements in Israel, however, that perform their own conversions. The Reform and Conservative movements, for instance, run their own conversion programs. But because the Rabbinate does not recognize them, individuals converted through these programs are prohibited from marrying in Israel.
In recent years, fed up with the stringent standards of the Rabbinate, a group of Modern Orthodox rabbis set up their own conversion program, called “Giyur K’Halacha” (“Conversion according to Halakha”). However, such conversions are not recognized by the Rabbinate for the purpose of marriage either.
What will change under the proposed new law?
If it passes, any municipal rabbi in Israel will have the right to set up a rabbinical court, or even more than one rabbinical court, to perform conversions. The municipal rabbis will also sign the conversion certificates. The Rabbinate will, therefore, no longer choose which rabbis get to sit in the conversion courts, and it will no longer certify conversions. These conversions performed by municipal rabbinical courts, nonetheless, will be state sanctioned.
Will non-Orthodox conversions be allowed under the new proposed law?
Absolutely not. Only halakhic conversions will be permitted, but because halakha is open to interpretation, the assumption is that some of the rabbis performing conversions under the new law will take a more lenient approach to Torah observance.
For example, the Rabbinate requires children who are converting, as well as their siblings, to attend religious schools during the process. Not all Orthodox rabbis believe this is necessary.
A couple in Israel. Many immigrants from the former Soviet Union, or children of immigrants from the FSU, are unable to marry in Israel because their conversions aren’t currently recognized.Tomer Appelbaum
In March, the High Court ruled that “Jews of choice” converted in Israel are eligible for citizenship. Will that be changed under this new law?
No, it won’t. These converts will continue to be eligible for citizenship under the Law of Return, but they will not be allowed to register to marry, which is also the case today.
Will the conversions performed by private Orthodox organizations, like Giyur K’Halacha, be recognized under the new law?
No, they won’t. But according to Rabbi Seth Farber, one of the founders of Giyur K’Halacha, the organization believes its model for “friendlier” Orthodox conversions will be adopted by many of the new conversion courts, because many municipal rabbis are part of its organization.
The Rabbinate has expressed its fierce opposition to any change in the status quo. Will it be able to prevent individuals converted under the new system from marrying in Israel?
No. Under a special clause in the draft bill, says Farber, the Rabbinate will be required by law to marry all converts approved by municipal rabbis.
So Kahana really doesn’t need the Rabbinate’s consent to push this through?
No, but at the same time he would rather not drag the Rabbinate into this kicking and screaming, which is why the process is taking somewhat longer than expected (under the coalition agreement, Kahana was supposed to have submitted the bill to the Knesset within 60 days of the government forming).
If the bill is passed, does it really have the potential to increase the number of conversions performed in Israel?
Farber, from Giyur K’Halacha, is hoping that as soon as it passes, more than 2,000 individuals who have already converted through his organization will retroactively be recognized. “And then we have a database of another 3,000 people interested in converting, who are just waiting for something like this,” he says.
Netanel Fisher, a leading scholar on conversion, is confident that if rabbis “ask less questions and are kinder,” there will be much greater incentive for people to convert. And, contrary to conventional wisdom, he doesn’t believe the Rabbinate does such a bad job.
“Let’s not forget that over the past 20 years, the Rabbinate has converted 100,000 people in this country,” says Fischer, who heads the school of public administration, governance and law at the Academic Center for Law and Science Sha’arei Mishpa. “True, half of them were Ethiopians, but that’s still a large number. And while the Rabbinate won’t convert people who say they have no intention of keeping Shabbat, it’s clear that not all these 100,000 converts do keep Shabbat – which means the Rabbinate does deserve some credit.”
Frank, from the Hartman Institute, is not optimistic that the proposed bill will have the desired effect, even though he wholeheartedly supports it.
“I don’t see candidates for conversion showing up in droves if municipal rabbis are brought into the picture,” he says. “There have to be other solutions to the question of who is a Jew, because this alone won’t do the trick.”
Katya Kupchik, the liaison to the Russian-speaking community at Israel Hofsheet, an organization that advocates for greater religious freedom, is even less convinced. “Most of these people already see themselves as Jewish and see no reason to convert,” she says. “They’ve been living in Israel most of their lives; many of them were born here and they lead a very Jewish-Israeli lifestyle, even if only their fathers are Jewish.”
For most of them, she says, the only reason to convert would be to get married in Israel. And in the majority of cases, as statistics show, that’s not a good enough reason.
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