TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) – Israel’s Supreme Court on Monday dealt a major blow to the country’s powerful Orthodox establishment, ruling that people who convert to Judaism through reformist and conservative movements in Israel are also Jews and have right to become citizens.
The decisive decision, 15 years ago, focused on the fuel issue of who is Jewish and was a major victory for the reformist and conservative movements. These liberal currents of Judaism, which represent the vast majority of American Jewish affiliates, have long been marginalized in Israel.
“If the state of Israel claims to be the nation-state of the Jewish world, the state of Israel must recognize all denominations of Judaism and permeate them with equality and respect,” said Rabbi Gilad Kariv. , head of the reformist movement in Israel and a candidate with the Liberal Labor Party in the next parliamentary elections.
Israel’s powerful ultra-Orthodox establishment has maintained a virtual monopoly on religious issues for Israeli Jews, overseeing life-cycle rituals such as weddings and funerals, and using its political influence to gain influence in matters such as immigration.
Monday’s ruling removed that power by saying the state must allow Jews suffering conversions with Israel’s liberal movements to receive citizenship.
“Jews who during their stay in Israel legally became a reformist or conservative community must be recognized as Jews,” the court said in its majority decision. He said the ruling only applied to the issue of citizenship and did not delve into religious matters.
Israel previously recognized conversions by liberal currents conducted abroad. This sentence now applies to conversions in the interior of Israel.
The resolution does not solve the problems faced by people who meet the requirements to obtain citizenship under the so-called Law of Return, but who are not considered Jews under religious law.
The law of return grants citizenship to anyone who has at least one Jewish grandfather, while religious law requires one to have a Jewish mother. These different definitions have allowed tens of thousands of people, mostly from the Soviet Union, to emigrate to Israel, only to suffer discrimination when seeking religious services in the state.
Monday’s ruling only directly affects about 30 people a year, such as the spouses of Israeli citizens, according to defenders. But both supporters and opponents of the decision suggested that there was a much deeper symbolism.
“He’s saying the Jewish world is one,” said Nicole Maor, the lawyer who represented the reformist movement.
“Whoever becomes a Jew in a conversion conversion or something similar is not a Jew,” said David Lau, one of Israel’s two great rabbis. “No Supreme Court ruling in this way or that way will change that fact.”
The ultra-Orthodox are key allies of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with great political power.
Interior Minister Aryeh Deri, leader of the ultra-Orthodox Shas party, condemned the decision, saying it would lead to deep divisions in Israeli society.
“I promise to set the law to ensure that only conversions are recognized under Orthodox religious law in the state of Israel,” said Deri, whose ministry is in charge of immigration policies.
Netanyahu, who is running for re-election in the March 23 Israeli contest, posted a Likud Party tweet in which he said the decision should be left “to the people and the Knesset.”
The reformist and conservative currents of Judaism have had an increasingly strained relationship with Netanyahu, who lives up to the success of Israel’s vaccination campaign ahead of the March 23 elections. The Orthodox, including the ultra-Orthodox plan that mocks Netanyahu’s anti-COVID plan, form a key part of his support base.
Netanyahu’s tensions with unorthodox movements have increased in recent years. They are underlined by their 2017 decision under strong Orthodox pressure to cancel plans for an expanded mixed-gender prayer area on the Western Wall, the holiest place of prayer in Judaism. Netanyahu’s close ties to his ultra-Orthodox political partners, as well as his strong alliance with former President Donald Trump, alienated even larger segments of the American Jewish community. Most American Jews tend to hold liberal views.
Avigdor Lieberman, leader of Yisrael Beitenu, a popular party among former Soviet immigrants, welcomed the sentence. “Yisrael Beitenu will continue to fight against religious coercion and preserve the character of the State of Israel as a Jewish and liberal Zionist state,” he wrote on Twitter.
Naftali Bennett, leader of the Yamina party and prime ministerial candidate, said the high court exceeded and advocated a legislative solution.
“The recognition of the State of Israel by conversion will be determined by the democratically elected people’s representatives and not the jurists,” he tweeted. “Conversion procedures,” he added, should be “institutionalized in law.”
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