Premier revives conversion bill as Conservatives press court case

JERUSALEM, June 4 (JTA) — Efforts to forge a compromise over the ongoing conversion controversy in Israel appear ready to explode. The Conservative movement has returned to court to battle for the recognition of its conversions in Israel. In response, the government plans to revive legislation that would codify the Orthodox monopoly over conversions in Israel. The latest developments suggest that nearly one year after a truce was called in an effort to reach a compromise in the battle over religious pluralism, the parties are back where they started. The issue has angered many American Jews, the majority of whom identify with the liberal streams of Judaism. Those involved in Israeli-Diaspora relations worry that reigniting the debate will further alienate Jews outside Israel. “We had an agreement with the Reform and Conservative [movements] that they would withdraw the lawsuits and we would stop the legislation,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Thursday, speaking to his coalition partners. “They have renewed their lawsuits and we are forced to return to the legislative process.” The conversion bill could be revived “within days” if the Conservative and Reform movements do not withdraw their conversion cases from court, according to Bobby Brown, the prime minister’s adviser on Diaspora affairs. He appealed to all sides to pursue a compromise: “The impending threat can be put aside if we go back to a compromise, which is a small win for each side and a big win for the Jewish people.” Political analysts said the move could spark a new coalition crisis within the government because some coalition partners such as Yisrael Ba’Aliyah, the immigrants’ party headed by Natan Sharansky, oppose the conversion bill. In fact, the fate of any conversion legislation is very uncertain because a majority of Knesset members have said they opposed such legislation. But Netanyahu has been under pressure from fervently Orthodox parties to bring back the bill. Legislation had been frozen since last year, when the government appointed a committee headed by Finance Minister Ya’acov Ne’eman to draw up a compromise. After months of intense meetings and missed deadlines, the commission in January recommended establishing a joint interdenominational conversion institute under the auspices of the Jewish Agency for Israel. While rabbis from the Orthodox, Conservative and Reform movements would participate in training potential converts, the actual conversion process would remain under Orthodox control. Israel’s Reform and Conservative movements accepted the compromise in principle, but demanded that Israel’s Orthodox chief rabbis endorse the recommendations. In early February, Israel’s Chief Rabbinate Council did not comment on the institute per se, but lashed out at “those who are trying to shake the foundations of the Jewish people.” On Thursday, Israel’s High Court of Justice renewed deliberation on the recognition of Conservative conversions of babies adopted abroad. The session was technical, involving the state’s submission of its explanations on the issue. However, the significance was more than just technical. It represented the Conservative movement’s decision to press ahead in court after freezing the case while the Ne’eman committee tried to hammer out a compromise. “We have no choice but to pursue a court decision,” said Rabbi Ehud Bandel, president of Masorti, as the Conservative movement is known in Israel. “We are the only ones who agreed to the Ne’eman Committee’s conclusions. We conditioned our agreement on a similar agreement from the [Orthodox] Chief Rabbinate. The moment they rejected the Ne’eman committee, it is as if there are no recommendations.” A leader of the Conservative movement in America, however, disagreed with his Israeli colleague. “The Conservative movement could have avoided going back to the courts at this time,” said Rabbi Ismar Schorsch, chancellor of the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York. He said that 13 of the 14 adoption cases had been quietly resolved with the rabbinical courts. By returning the focus to conversion, which is largely perceived as an American issue, Schorsch said, “the cause of religious pluralism has not been advanced but set back.” At the same time, he said, reviving conversion legislation is “an extreme reaction on the part of the government.” The conversion institute’s board has held several meetings in recent weeks. Conservative and Reform delegates have attended, but insist that their participation does not imply the problem has been solved. Netanyahu said Thursday that he would consider pushing the Ne’eman recommendation through legislation alongside the conversion bill. But Bandel said if this happened, he would be in a “strange alliance” with the fervently Orthodox parties, who object to such a move. The Orthodox object because they reject the Ne’eman compromise proposals. Bandel and the Conservatives say they object because legalizing the Ne’eman recommendations would only be “symbolic,” while the conversion law would in fact delegitimate non-Orthodox conversions. In New York, Rabbi Avi Shafran, a spokesman for the Orthodox group Agudath Israel of America, expressed dismay over the Conservatives’ decision to return to court. “All along, the religious parties said they wouldn’t stand by as the modus vivendi of the past 50 years was dismantled by the American non-Orthodox groups,” said Shafran, whose organization has been involved in a major public relations campaign to preserve Orthodox control over such issues. “They had this legislation which they put on hold as a gesture of goodwill in the hope that the others would see that true Jewish unity is more important than denominational agendas.” With the non-Orthodox returning to court, he said, “it leaves the Orthodox with no choice but to bring the full weight of a democracy to bear on the issue.” For his part, Avraham Burg, chairman of the Jewish Agency, warned that the confrontation would widen the gulf between Israel and Jews throughout the world. “Every headline, each remark against Conservative and Reform Jews, only adds dozens of miles to the distance between us and the majority of the Jews of the world who are not Orthodox,” Burg said. (JTA staff writer Debra Nussbaum Cohen in New York contributed to this report.)