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April 8, 2005/Adar II 28 5765, Volume 57, No. 32
Court accepts non-Orthodox conversions
DAN BARON
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
JERUSALEM - After 22 years of living as an Israeli, Justina Hilaria Chipana can finally consider herself a full-fledged member of the Jewish state.
The 50-year-old native of Peru was one of 17 petitioners who won High Court of Justice recognition of their non-Orthodox conversions to Judaism on March 31, in what the Conservative and Reform movements hailed as a breakthrough for efforts to introduce more religious pluralism to Israel.
Orthodox rabbis and politicians disagreed.
By a vote of 7-4, the High Court ordered the state to recognize "leaping converts" - so called because they study in Israeli institutes but then convert with Reform or Conservative rabbis abroad - as eligible to immigrate under the Law of Return.
The ruling was a small step in a decades-long controversy in Israel over who is a Jew, who can turn a non-Jew into a Jew, and who can decide whether that process was done correctly.
The ruling also broadened a 1989 decision recognizing immigrants who arrive having gone through the entire non-Orthodox conversion process abroad; those immigrants are considered to be Jews and the Law of Return applies to them.
But the ruling did not endorse Reform and Conservative conversions performed in Israel, a move that effectively would end Orthodoxy's de facto hegemony in the Jewish state and could stir up a government crisis.
Shas Party Chairman Eli Yishai called the ruling an "explosives belt that has brought about a suicide attack against the Jewish people," according to Ha'aretz.
The Orthodox Rabbinate, which controls the observance of lifecycle events in Israel - including births, weddings and funerals - also cried foul.
The Jerusalem Post reported that the Reform movement was unsatisfied that the court didn't issue a more far-reaching decision, and plans to bring another petition in hopes of forcing the state to recognize Reform conversions performed in Israel.
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