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BREAKTHROUGH IN THE
STRUGGLE FOR RELIGIOUS PLURALISM IN ISRAEL: HEMDAT welcomed the ruling of the Israel Supreme Court of February 20th, 2002 that the Ministry of Interior must register as Jews Israeli citizens who were converted by the Conservative or Reform Movements in Israel or abroad. Three of HEMDAT's coalition partners, The Masorti (Conservative) Movement, The Reform Movement and Naamat submitted the original petitions nearly 7 years ago which were fully accepted by a 9 to 2 decision of the Supreme Court sitting as the High Court of Justice. Rabbi Ehud Bandel, President of the Masorti Movement and HEMDAT Board member said: "The Supreme Court ruling is a historic milestone in our long struggle for freedom of religion and religious pluralism in Israel. Today's ruling is great news and calls for celebration not only for several dozen petitioners who are now eligible to officially register as Jews at the Ministry of Interior, but also for tens of thousands of new immigrants from the former Soviet Union (FSU) for whom a door had been opened for a Halachic conversion without necessarily committing to Orthodoxy. Rabbi Uri Regev, now Head of the World Union for Progessive Judasim, also a HEMDAT Board member, who has led the court fight for recognition of Reform and Conservative conversions in Israel pointed out that there are some 300,000 Israeli citizens who immigrated from the FSU and are not Halachically Jewish and that now we anticipate that many of them will now apply for Reform or Conservative conversions. Professor Hillel Shuval, Honorary Life President of HEMDAT emphasizes that the Supreme Court's ruling is also is a historic precedent not only because of its final result but also in regard to some of the arguments used by the court, leading to this result. Chief Justice Aharon Barak who drafted the majority ruling recognized the legitimacy of the various religious streams of Judaism and rejected the position of the Israel the State Attorney's that there is only one Jewish community in Israel, an Orthodox one, headed by the Chief Rabbis, which are the only body authorized to confirm conversions to Judaism. Chief Justice Barak wrote: "Israel is the state of the Jewish people. There are various streams of Judaism in Israel and abroad. Each stream acts in accordance with its view. To every Jew in Israel as well as to every person who is not Jewish - freedom of religion, conscience and organization. Our basic concepts grant each individual the liberty to decide his or her affiliation to one stream or another." The Ultra-Orthodox political parties are making plans to pass legislation in the Knesset to over-rule or by-pass the Supreme Court's decision. This is technically possible in Israel since there is no constitution preventing such action. Interior Minister Eli Yishai from the "Shas" ultra-Orthodox Sepharadi party declared that he is inclined not to abide by the court ruling which would require registering reform and conservative converts as Jews. As an alternative he is considering registering such converts as Reform Converts or Conservative Converts. The Supreme Court previously ruled that such registration is illegal. HEMDAT calls upon the organized Jewish community in American and world over to organize to bring home the message to Israeli leaders that any attempt to pass legislation blocking the recognition of Reform and Conservative converts would be seen as a direct affront and an overt act of deligitimization of the main streams of Judaism recognized by the vast majority of the Jews of the world. It would be seen as a disgraceful reopening to the divisive "Who is a Jew" issue at a time when Israel urgently needs the united support of the world Jewish Community. |
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