|
|
March 22, 2002/Nisan 9, 5762, Vol. 54, No. 27
Conversion issue divides nation
JESSICA STEINBERG
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
JERUSALEM - A continuing crisis over conversion is presenting Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon with a choice between a confrontation with Orthodox members of his government or one with Diaspora Jewry.
Sharon and Interior Minister Eli Yishai decided last week to explore the possibility of a law that would recognize only Orthodox conversions, circumventing a February High Court of Justice ruling that recognized the validity of Reform and Conservative conversions performed in Israel.
The issue threatens to undermine Israel's shaky unity government, already weakened by the 18-month-old Palestinian intifada, the defection of one far-right party and infighting among the remaining coalition partners.
After Yishai threatened to pull his fervently Orthodox Shas Party out of the government, Sharon agreed to establish a committee of coalition faction leaders to examine the issue.
"Sharon promised us a law that will address conversion," Yishai said, according to Israel Radio.
Representatives of the Conservative movement, from both Israel and the United States, wrote to Sharon urging him to exercise "extreme caution" in such a step.
Despite the court decision, problems continue with the registration of converts. After Attorney General Elyakim Rubinstein threatened to hold Yishai in contempt of court last week, the Interior Ministry registered several non-Orthodox converts - primarily Reform ones - as Jewish on their Israeli ID cards.
Conservative converts, especially those attempting to register at the Interior Ministry's regional offices, face greater difficulties, according to Yonatan Leibowitz, spokesman for the Conservative movement in Israel.
Ministry clerks sometimes refuse to register the converts, asking for handwritten letters or not accepting their conversion certificates, and then transferring their cases to the head office in Jerusalem.
Movement leaders are seeking a meeting with Sharon as soon as possible.
"It's not just the legitimacy of the Conservative movement that is at stake, but democracy, rule of law and the status of the Supreme Court," Rabbi Ehud Bandel, president of the Conservative movement in Israel, told JTA.
The Knesset tried to avert a crisis by passing new regulations abolishing the "nationality" entry from identity cards. Proposed by several fervently Orthodox Knesset members, the bill passed a Knesset committee by 9-4 vote.
That compromise was acceptable to Yishai. The new regulations won't take effect for another 40 days, and they don't bypass the entire High Court ruling.
The change would affect only new ID cards, not the nationality listing in the Interior Ministry's population registry.
|
