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Outgoing Meretz MK Yossi Beilin (Dan Keinan)
Last update - 00:00 16/11/2008
Courts to perform secular conversions which bypass rabbinate
By Shahar Ilan
Tags: Reform, Orthodox, Israel News 

The Knesset caucus for secular Judaism and organizations from all streams of Judaism have created a coalition of conversion courts independent from the Chief Rabbinate. The coalition, which was approved last week, is being coordinated by PANIM for Jewish Renaissance, an advocacy group for pluralistic Judaism.

The goal is to create two new tracks in Israel for conversions to Judaism, one secular and one national-religious, both independent from the Chief Rabbinate. These come on top of the conversion courts of the Reform and Conservative movements, which produce about 300 converts a year.

Converts of the new coalition will not be permitted to marry through the rabbinate, but rather in accordance with a ruling by the High Court of Justice that these converts will be registered as Jews in the Interior Ministry's Population Registry.
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One of the coalition's main innovations is the inclusion of Ne'emanei Torah Vaavodah, a moderate Orthodox movement, in a forum that recognizes Reform, Conservative and secular conversion. The chairman of Ne'emanei Torah Vaavodah, Yonatan Ben Harosh, said at the forum's latest meeting that his movement plans to establish independent conversion courts "in close cooperation with two other organizations: Mavoi Satum (Dead End) and Kolech, Jewish Woman's Voice."

The forum's founding document explains that "300,000 of the immigrants to Israel who are eligible under the Law of Return are not recognized in Israel as Jews in the Population Registry. Most have integrated into Israel and have forged a covenant of fate but are not accepted by us into the Jewish people, with all that entails: the stripping of citizenship rights, alienation and rejection."

The organizations in the forum say that "the opportunity given by the Chief Rabbinate of Israel by the state to respond to the challenge of conversion in Israel has been exhausted. [The rabbinate's] monopoly must be taken away from it."

The main obstacle to mass conversion is the demand by the Chief Rabbinate and Conversion Administration that converts conduct a religiously observant lifestyle and send their children to religious schools. The crisis between the national-religious public and the government's conversion system was created by a ruling by the Great Rabbinical Court seeking to void even conversions carried out by the head of the administration, Rabbi Haim Druckman.

The Reform and Conservative movements, like the Conversion Administration, require potential converts to complete hundreds of hours of instruction in Judaism. The secular Judaism institutions might very well do the same, but they will not demand that converts change their lifestyle.

The secular Knesset caucus is headed by outgoing Meretz MK Yossi Beilin, a pioneer of the idea of secular conversion. Currently the only secular organization initiating a secular conversion process is Tmura, the International Institute for Secular Humanistic Judaism. Rabbi Sivan Maas, a director and assistant dean of Tmura, said the organization's first conversion course is scheduled to begin in January.

Rabbi Gilad Kariv of the Reform movement's Israel Religious Action Center told Haaretz that the organizations recognize that a secular convert is part of the Jewish people. However, secular converts who want to join a Reform congregation may be asked to make up for gaps in their conversion.

Yelena Vaganov, 46, immigrated from Russia two years ago and is preparing for her conversion at Haifa's Or Hadash Reform congregation. She views this as joining the Jewish people. She says she heard about Reform conversion from her life partner, an immigrant who converted to Judaism in South Africa.

Yelena says she wants to convert because "I want a family that is more Jewish because I always felt Jewish, and that's why I'm in Israel. It's more harmonious for me." Her father, she says, was a Jew, and when she was a child he took her to events in the Jewish community. "During World War II he was a boy, and his whole family was killed. That's another reason why it's important to me to be Jewish."

Related articles:
  • Fistfight over conversion in Jerusalem
  • The ball is in the secular public's court
  • Analysis / Secular conversions begin cautiously
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      1.   KOL HAKAVOD 05:22  |  IsraFan 16/11/08
      2.   That`s Plan B 05:32  |  Yosemite 16/11/08
      3.   Secular conversions = A goy is still a goy! 05:46  |  Miriam 16/11/08
      4.   "Secular" conversion - more Zionist Newspeak 06:14  |  Naftali Lavie 16/11/08
      5.   This Is The Truth 06:18  |  Yosemite 16/11/08
      6.   Yossi Beilin is evil 06:27  |  Gili 16/11/08
      7.   Clearly some changes need to be made to the law of Return 07:45  |  David G 16/11/08
      8.   conversion to emptiness 08:00  |  eli 16/11/08
      9.   Theocracy or democracy 08:23  |  Rowan Berkeley 16/11/08
      10.   To Yosemite 08:40  |  Phil 16/11/08
      11.   300,000 people who have tied there fate with ours 08:48  |  TW 16/11/08
      12.   Who is a Jew 09:28  |  Ilan 16/11/08
      13.   #10, TW, very well said 09:30  |  Cipora Julianna Kohn 16/11/08
      14.   Rowan Berkley 09:32  |  Cipora Julianna Kohn 16/11/08
      15.   Well Just Remember You Had A Choice 09:36  |  Yosemite 16/11/08
      16.   TW I think you are right 09:36  |  Margie in Tel Aviv 16/11/08
      17.   The Samaritans say they are "Jewish" too 09:41  |  Zev Davis 16/11/08
      18.   Nonsense 09:42  |  Charlie 16/11/08
      19.   Spirituality 09:53  |  Yosemite 16/11/08
      20.   # 12 - Titbiesh lacha 09:57  |  TW 16/11/08
      21.   TW ................... Kol HaKavod 09:58  |  Ari ben Yisrael 16/11/08
      22.   Who or what are Rabbis protecting? 10:20  |  Yacov 16/11/08
      23.   Let Hashem sort out the souls 10:54  |  Bennie 16/11/08
      24.   Reaction to Margie Tel Aviv 11:09  |  Aaron 16/11/08
      25.   Rebounded on them! 11:15  |  Danny 16/11/08
      26.   Rejecting extremism 11:20  |  Avi 16/11/08
      27.   Start by recognizing Jews 11:21  |  Shaul 16/11/08
      28.   Back to Basics 11:24  |  Akiva 16/11/08
      29.   Genuine tradition of acceptance 11:27  |  Joe 16/11/08
      30.   Israeli Law Vs. Jewish Law 11:29  |  Ben Yeppi 16/11/08
      31.   #18 Charles - Couldn`t have said it better myself! 11:44  |  Israel 16/11/08
      32.   everything has its rules....doctors, lawyers, Indianchiefs.. 11:49  |  a voice 16/11/08
      33.   Sorry no Jews without Judaism 12:28  |  Ilan 16/11/08
      34.   Yosemite; Your children aren`t Jews and I don`t care! 12:36  |  Not amused 16/11/08
      35.   ANYWAY YOU SLICE IT - THIS IS TRAIF 13:04  |  Barry S. Roffman 16/11/08
      36.   Secular Conversion [sic] 13:18  |  eddie - Haifa 16/11/08
      37.   #11 13:56  |  Avi Yerushalmi 16/11/08
      38.   Silly Season 14:10  |  Avi Yerushalmi 16/11/08
      39.   Yossi Beilin - what a disappointment! 15:36  |  Gideon 16/11/08
      40.   Ben Yeppi, Re: fanatics 16:07  |  Gideon 16/11/08
      41.   cantradiction in terms, but sadly, who´s fault is it? 16:15  |  Noa 16/11/08
      42.   national-religious converts cannot marry in Israel? 16:19  |  yael 16/11/08
      43.   ESTABLISH COURT WITH AVITAL SHARANSKY TO CONVERT RUSSIANS 16:46  |  MARK 16/11/08
      44.   There should be total seperation of state and religion in Israel. 16:47  |  The Bedouin 16/11/08
      45.   Relevant: the break-up of the NRP 16:52  |  Rowan Berkeley 16/11/08
      46.   We`re going to convert you, too. 16:56  |  Joe Smith 16/11/08
      47.   Gideon and his discontent 16:58  |  Ben Yeppi 16/11/08
      48.   # 39 Gideon 17:04  |  Avi Yeushalmi 16/11/08
      49.   Not Amused #34 17:31  |  Yosemite 16/11/08
      50.   Secular Conversion is OK With Me 17:56  |  MIKE 16/11/08
      51.   #16 Margie from SA You are joking 18:40  |  Lanhras 16/11/08
      52.   not amused 19:24  |  gays4israel 16/11/08
      53.   #32 Rules and responsibilities 20:52  |  Kate 16/11/08
      54.   "secular conversion" an OXYMORON! 21:52  |  Yaakov K. 16/11/08
      55.   So what. They will be Isralie not Jewish. 22:01  |  Jew 16/11/08
      56.   Yeppi doesn`t get it. 22:31  |  Gideon 16/11/08
      57.   Just Make Sure The Documents Are... 00:30  |  Yosemite 17/11/08
      58.   conversions 01:28  |  felix 17/11/08
      59.   #46 ...aka Moishe Druckman of Bnei Brak 01:30  |  Kate 17/11/08
      60.   Marriage?! 01:45  |  Daniel 17/11/08
      61.   Our Forefathers Who art in Heaven,,,,,,,and their Shiksas 02:40  |  MIKE 17/11/08
      62.   #52;If your mother`s Jewish than you`re a Jew. 05:29  |  Not Amused 17/11/08
      63.   Jewish Singles Dances in the 1970`s 06:31  |  Yosemite 17/11/08
      64.   Margie in Tel Aviv 06:34  |  Susan 17/11/08
      65.   MISS ME KATE! 11:04  |  a voice 17/11/08
      66.   As a secular convert... 00:49  |  Daniel 26/11/08
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