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Last update - 08:37 11/06/2008
An obsolete monopoly
By Alexander Yakobson
Tags: Israel, conversion 

The ultra-Orthodox rabbis who currently control the Rabbinical Court of Appeals are probably not especially upset over the wave of protests aroused by their latest outrageous decision, which threatens thousands of converts to Judaism with the retroactive annulment of their conversions. Instead of preaching to these rabbinical judges in the name of humanist, social and national values that they do not accept, they should simply be told: You don't stand a chance of getting what you want.

First of all, the ruling will most likely be overturned when the issue comes before the High Court of Justice. But beyond that, the basic worldview that underlies the ruling is doomed to failure - namely, the Orthodox establishment's pretension that it holds the sole key to entry into the Jewish people. The demand that anyone who becomes Jewish must become Orthodox, rather than secular or traditional, implies that Orthodoxy is the "standard" of Jewish identity, and any other version of Jewish culture can perhaps be tolerated if absolutely necessary, but is not legitimate - and is certainly not of equal value.

This is indeed the perception of the Orthodox establishment - not only among the ultra-Orthodox, but also among religious Zionists, who want to make things easier for converts, but who nevertheless insist on the principle that joining the Jewish people means becoming a religiously observant Jew. That is why the religious parties demanded for years that the Law of Return be amended to stipulate that only conversion in accordance with halakha (rabbinic law) be recognized by the State of Israel.
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This struggle failed, and efforts to amend the law have ceased. A person who underwent a Conservative or Reform conversion abroad is considered a Jew in Israel for purposes of the Law of Return. Inside Israel, the Orthodox retain their monopoly on conversion - but not a monopoly over de facto entry into the Jewish people.

In the wake of the mass immigration from the former Soviet Union, something that was already true has become even more obvious: There is no need for any religious rite, Orthodox or non-Orthodox, or for any rabbinical kashrut certificate in order to join the Jewish people. A large number of people who are non-Jewish according to halakha, but have Jewish relatives, have come to Israel and received citizenship under the Law of Return. A minority are children of a Jewish father, and many of these already had a well-formed Jewish consciousness. But many others are the spouses of Jews, or people who have only a distant family connection to Jews, and were devoid of Jewish consciousness when they came here.

The integration of this large population into Israeli society is no simple challenge. However, despite a few exceptions, some of them grave, the overall picture is positive. The vast majority of this public aspires to integrate, and over time, it is indeed integrating successfully into Hebrew-speaking Israeli Jewish society, in a process that has come to be termed "sociological conversion." This is exactly how joining a sovereign nation is supposed to be accomplished: immigration and the acquisition of citizenship, adoption of the nation's language and culture, integration into the country and identification with it.

The religious establishment is able to harass these people, especially because of its monopoly over personal status issues, which people must go all the way to Cyprus to bypass. However, it does not have the power to make them into a Russian national minority. Such a minority will not be created in Israel. These people belong, and their children belong even more clearly, to the same nation to which the Israeli Jewish majority belongs.

Halakhic Judaism - the traditional Jewish culture - is today only one variant of Israeli Jewish culture. It is an important, influential variant that is dear to the hearts of many people, and one can only regret what some of its spokesman and representatives are doing to it. Anyone who adopts Jewish culture in its religious variant is rightly considered, even by most secular people, to have joined the Jewish nation. However, this is not the only way to join. In the current situation, there is not a complete separation between the Jewish religion and Jewish national identity, but neither is there a complete overlap, and there is no chance that anyone will succeed in forcing such an overlap.

Israeli society is influenced by Jewish tradition, but it is a free society to the very marrow of its bones. Contrary to the fashionable cliche that describes Israel as a local version of the ayatollahs' regime, in most areas, the religious establishment's ability to impose its will has decreased rather than increased over the past few decades.
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  1.   Never Abandon Halakha 08:53  |  Proud Orthdox Jew 11/06/08
  2.   Ruth: The Paradigm Of Converts 09:03  |  Yishai Kohen 11/06/08
  3.   We will be better of without a jewish law. 09:30  |  Puhi 11/06/08
  4.   Judaism 09:39  |  Daniel 11/06/08
  5.   #3 and #4 10:47  |  Mordechai 11/06/08
  6.   conversion 11:24  |  vincent 11/06/08
  7.   Survival, Mr Yakobson, Survival ! 11:25  |  Harvey (Chaim) 11/06/08
  8.   Mordechai Ha Yehudi #5 11:28  |  Daniel 11/06/08
  9.   Judaism by definition 11:31  |  Sherlock Holmes 11/06/08
  10.   This guy is a confused know nothing 11:36  |  Shlomo 11/06/08
  11.   to Mordehai 11:50  |  Puhi 11/06/08
  12.   Being jewish is a nationality 11:57  |  Moshe Feliks 11/06/08
  13.   Why not simply conversion to "Israeli"? 12:21  |  Binyamin Dissen 11/06/08
  14.   Jewish DNA = Torah Conversion 12:28  |  Jeff 11/06/08
  15.   Mordechai 13:08  |  pnina 11/06/08
  16.   All problem will be solved by 13:42  |  Dr D 11/06/08
  17.   Intelligence required to join 13:43  |  Herbert Kaine 11/06/08
  18.   They can be Jewish like Ahmed Tibi 14:18  |  Ilan 11/06/08
  19.   Atheists jews raus? 15:04  |  A.M. 11/06/08
  20.   #14 Jeff 15:36  |  Shoshi 11/06/08
  21.   Zionism sought to usurp Judaism -part 1 15:39  |  HH 11/06/08
  22.   Zionism sought to usurp Judaism -part 2 15:44  |  HH 11/06/08
  23.   Religion, ethnicity, citizenship- 16:02  |  17 11/06/08
  24.   Amazing Mindless Posts 16:14  |  B`Galil 11/06/08
  25.   The Jewish State Can And Should... 16:37  |  Yosemite 11/06/08
  26.   Orthodoxy, the Standard? 16:38  |  Craftsman 11/06/08
  27.   So maybe do one of Beilin`s secular conversions instead? 16:39  |  Tsfoni Leftist Idiot 11/06/08
  28.   Whistling in the dark 16:40  |  Rowan 11/06/08
  29.   Moshe in Krakow: Just a Nationality? 16:43  |  Craftsman 11/06/08
  30.   freedom differences and similarities 16:47  |  montgomery rosen 11/06/08
  31.   Binyamin: Israeli Conversion? 16:48  |  Craftsman 11/06/08
  32.   Numbers 3,4,8 please read my No 7 16:51  |  Harvey (Chaim) 11/06/08
  33.   To Ilan of Ariel #18 17:14  |  Afikoman 11/06/08
  34.   Convert to Christianity! Jews have missed the boat too many times 17:18  |  Da Convert 11/06/08
  35.   Halacha is the law of the Galut, not 3rd Commonwealth Israel. 1 17:35  |  David Turner 11/06/08
  36.   Halacha is the law of the Galut, not 3rd Commonwealth Israel. 2 17:35  |  David Turner 11/06/08
  37.   Some Light Confusion - Oh Well - Who Cares 17:58  |  Jay A Friedman 11/06/08
  38.   To All The Secular Jews 17:59  |  Mordechai 11/06/08
  39.   This Guy Is Giving It Away For Free 18:23  |  Yosemite 11/06/08
  40.   Craftsman tools are not so good... 21:01  |  sptz 11/06/08
  41.   Yakobson is anti-Gentile!!!!!!! 21:02  |  Yechiel Haredi 11/06/08
  42.   SECULARIST AND FRIENDS WANT TO BE JUST LIKE THE EUROPEANS!!! 21:06  |  Simeon ben Jacob 11/06/08
  43.   I Have a Dream of a Wonderful Theocracy Arising in Israel! 21:11  |  Moshe Melech 11/06/08
  44.   Jeff you are TOOO FUNNY 21:35  |  Biologist 11/06/08
  45.   To Jew or not to Jew? That is the question 21:36  |  I Jew 11/06/08
  46.   sptz 22:17  |  Craftsman 11/06/08
  47.   an obsolete obscene article 22:26  |  A thinking Jew 11/06/08
  48.   worthless words from the secular shrinking minority 22:27  |  Jerusalemite 11/06/08
  49.   I am a convert 22:27  |  Akiva P 11/06/08
  50.   nineteenth century wisdom, waffling on 22:29  |  just a Jew 11/06/08
  51.   DNA was a mere metaphor, biologist. 22:32  |  Geneticist 11/06/08
  52.   Ironical... 22:55  |  Esther 11/06/08
  53.   Re Yishai #2 23:02  |  Esther 11/06/08
  54.   an obsolete monopoly 23:03  |  Eliyahu Ellman 11/06/08
  55.   Just a Jew 23:20  |  Craftsman 11/06/08
  56.   Thank you, geneticist #42 00:03  |  Jeff 12/06/08
  57.   Polisch 00:25  |  Guy 12/06/08
  58.   hortodox are the most dangerous and dificult problem 01:45  |  Mario 12/06/08
  59.   If you believe Torah is divine then Jeff is right 02:11  |  Joe Frazier 12/06/08
  60.   Its All Getting Out Of Hand 02:45  |  Rov 12/06/08
  61.   Esther, your bigotry festers 09:54  |  sptz 12/06/08
  62.   craftsman and recycled "arguments" 22:59  |  just a Jew 12/06/08
  63.   Halacha and Conversion 23:25  |  Reb Bahir 22/06/08
  64.   this monopoly is really obsolete 01:25  |  Simja 14/10/08
  65.   #12 Moshe - CORRECT 16:21  |  Proud Secular Jew 27/10/08
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