12 Children Adopted Abroad Are Converted by Conservatives in Israel

Twelve children were converted to Judaism this week by the Masorti movement, the Israeli arm of Conservation Judaism.

The highly publicized event caused a stir since conversions performed in Israel by Conservation and Reform rabbis are not recognized by the country’s Orthodox rabbinic establishment.

The ceremony took place Sunday at Hannaton, a Conservation kibbutz in the western Galilee, and was officiated over by three Masorti movement rabbis.

All 12 boys and girls were adopted abroad by Israeli parents. Reform and Conservative conversions performed abroad are recognized in Israel.

The adoptive parents initially approached the rabbinic courts, here, but were deterred by their strict demands. As a condition of converting their children, they were asked to become fully observant, lead an Orthodox lifestyle and send their children to religious schools.

The distressed parents turned for help to Na’amat, the Labor Party women’s organization. Na’amat directed them to the Masorti movement, which agreed to perform the conversion according to halachah, or traditional Jewish law.

All the parents undertook to raise the children in the traditional spirit of Judaism, and to give them a Bar or Bat Mitzvah when they come of age.

Spokesman Rabbi Ehud Bandel said the Masorti movement rejects the Orthodox establishment’s narrow notion that only an Orthodox parent is suitable to raise children and convert them to Judaism.

He said that in the past the rabbinate in Israel converted children adopted abroad, but since the fervently Orthodox have become a dominant force in the religious establishment, they have placed greater demands on adoptive parents.

The ceremony began in the kibbutz synagogue, with a prayer and a blessing. The three rabbis and the families then moved on to the mikvah, where each child was taken by a parent into the water and immersed three times, while the appropriate blessing was uttered.

At the end of the ceremony each child received a Masorti movement conversion certificate.

Ofra Friedman, chairman of Na’amat said, “According to the adoption laws, an adopted child must be faith of the adoptive parent, but until now the religious establishment prevented it from happening. Now that we have completed that first phase, we proved that there is no monopoly on conversion.”

Friedman urged the adoptive parents to take the conversion certificate to the Interior Ministry, and the demand that these children be registered as Jews. “If the Interior Ministry refuses to do so, we shall appeal to the High Court of Justice,” she said.

Sephardi Chief Rabbi Eliyahu Bakshi-Doron dismissed these conversions and said they would only make the children miserable. “They have the illusion that they were converted, but once they grow up and want to get married, they’ll find out that they cannot be wed according to the halachah,” he said.

Meretz Knesset member Dedi Zucker, chairman of the Knesset’s Constitutional, Legal and Judicial Committee, met with both chief rabbis in the wake of the conversion ceremony.

It was agreed that the chief rabbis will meet with Zucker’s committee in order to discuss the situation. Zucker pointed out to the rabbis that the more obstacles placed in the way of adoptive parents by the rabbinate, the more parents will turn to Reform and Conservation conversions.

The rabbis promised they will look for ways to ease the process, and the put more reasonable demands on adoptive parents.