MERCAZ Newsletter — Spring 2006
COURT AGAIN TO RULE: WHO IS A JEW? WHO IS A RABBI?

The Masorti Movement has joined the Reform Movement in one important suit before the Israeli High Court of Justice and is providing nuanced support in a second case concerning the rights of non-Orthodox Jews in Israel.

The first case asks the Court to rule that non-Jewish temporary residents, such as tourists and diplomats, who undergo Reform or Conservative conversion in Israel be recognized as Jews with the full benefits of Israeli citizenship under the Law of Return. At present, only Orthodox converts to Judaism in Israel are recognized under the Law of Return with the right to immediate citizenship.

The new conversion case follows the Court’s previous rulings on the subject, including the 1989 decision that applied the Law of Return to all conversions performed in the Diaspora as well as the early 2005 ruling that extended the Law’s jurisdiction to include non-Orthodox converts who study in Israel but whose conversion ceremony is held outside of the country.

The joint Reform-Conservative petition argues that the High Court’s consistent stand on the question throughout the years leads to the conclusion that the term “converted” in the definition of “Who is a Jew” in the Law of Return includes non-Orthodox conversions performed both abroad and in Israel. Furthermore, state the petitioners, the Knesset has failed to produce legislation that would grant the Chief Rabbinate sole jurisdiction to perform conversions in Israel, as it has with marriage and divorce. In the absence of such a law, there are no grounds to differentiate among conversions performed in Israel for the purposes of awarding Israeli citizenship under the Law of Return.

In the second suit, the High Court has been asked to require the Israeli government to appoint a Reform rabbi as the official spiritual leader of the Reform congregation Birkat Shalom at Kibbutz Gezer. Should the Court rule on behalf of the petitioner, Rabbi Miri Gold, it would mark the first time that a non-Orthodox rabbi, and a female rabbi as well, would be appointed as a state-employed and salaried religious official serving the spiritual needs of an Israeli religious congregation.

At present, hundreds of rabbis are employed by the state to serve Orthodox communities throughout the country. “This situation constitutes gross discrimination aimed at a portion of the public that wants liberal religious Jewish services,” note the petitioners. “It constitutes unacceptable and illegal preferential treatment for the Orthodox stream and against rabbis belonging to the liberal streams, as well as against female rabbis who are discriminated against not only because they are not Orthodox but because they are women.”

Commenting on behalf of the Masorti Movement, Rabbi Peretz Rodman, President of the Rabbinical Assembly-Israel Region, has written: “As long as the Israeli government is in the business of providing direct funding for local and regional rabbinic salaries, then non-Orthodox rabbis should be a part of that system. But, it is the abolition of that system that [the Masorti Movement] is really after, not the inclusion of our people.”

“We don’t advocate direct government funding of rabbinic positions, which makes rabbis answerable to the government that pays them. Rabbis, we feel, should be responsible to their constituencies, to the communities they serve. The government of the State of Israel has an interest in the promotion of Jewish culture of all sorts, and registered, regulated nonprofits, including synagogues and religious movements of all sorts, should be able to seek government funding for their activities, including the employment of rabbis who serve them.”