It's Now or Never Part 2

Last week the ultra orthodox political parties in Israel tried to pass two new laws. One was concerning a permanent place of worship  at the western wall, where those who hold different religious views from them could pray ( I discussed this in my last post http://www.aaronmenche.com/its-now-or-never-part-1/) and one law authorizing that the fanatic controlled rabbinate be the only ones to be able to perform state recognized conversions in the State of Israel.

I am fully aware of the issues concerning conversions done by conservative and reform rabbis which is exasperated by their rejection of matrilineal descent being the main criteria for who is defined as a halachic Jew. The fact is according to the law of return anyone with one Jewish grandparent has the right to claim immediate Israeli citizenship. This was put in place precisely because it was the criteria that hitler used to determine who to kill.

In addition to this the Israeli government currently recognizes converts from overseas from all streams of Judaism for inclusion in the right of return. These converts will find it impossible for themselves to marry in Israel as the rabbinate, which ironically is a government funded institution, will not recognize them for that and as of now civil marriage does not exist. In addition the non orthodox streams of Judaism can not perform conversions in Israel that are recognized by the state. They are only recognized if performed overseas.

So the question begs, who is this new law aimed at. It is clearly not the reform and conservative as they do not currently have the right to do recognized conversions in Israel. No, this was an attack on the Dati Leumi ( national religious and modern orthodox) community. This community, which is fed up with the extreme interpretations of the fanatics, has been performing conversions, according to the halacha, in order to make it easier for those who moved here and have cast their lot with the Jewish State, to fully integrate.

I do not want to get into the theological debate, but to simplify there is a minimalist way and a maximalist way to do conversions. These Dati Leumi Rabbi's (led by Rabbi Stav and Rabbi Farber) have chosen to help those who pay taxes, serve in the army and are creating the startup nation, to be able to fully integrate into the Jewish people and the Jewish State by providing a halachic alternative to the maximalists.

This second law was meant to prevent these conversions from continuing. It was an attack on the moderate, compassionate Judaism prescribed by the Torah. It was a further attempt at a power grab by the fanatics to control all aspects of social life in Israel.

Many people, including some that I admire, feel that it is necessary to allow the fanatics to control conversions. The thought being that if we have two different levels ( for lack of a better word) of conversions, the fanatics will no longer accept many people as Jews and this will cause a split in the Jewish people.

I have to admit that I agree. It would indeed cause a split in the Jewish people. The split between those that have twisted and distorted Judaism to a point that it can not be recognized by adding and imposing on others a strictness that has no place in our religion, and those who follow not only the laws of Torah but the intent of the Torah. In my opinion that is OK. In many respects ( again my opinion) the fanatics and those on the extreme left have the same understanding of Judaism, which is no understanding. It is not Judaism at all.

So what can we do about it? That will be discussed in the next post.