Three immigrants converted to Judaism by Reform rabbis were asked by Attorney General Yosef Harish to postpone for six months their appeal to the Supreme Court to be registered as Jews, the media reported Wednesday.
The three are Julia Ann Biglaizer and Murilo Pinto Varela of Kibbutz Mishmar Hanegev, and Gail Mosacowitch of Kibbutz Gonen. Their attorney, Yosef Ben-Menashe, was approached by Harish who reportedly was acting at the behest of Premier Yitzhak Shamir.
The Supreme Court issued a show cause order on February 1 requiring the Interior Ministry to explain why the converts should not be registered. Harish, in seeking to postpone action, was criticized by senior legal figures who said he should have rejected Shamir’s request outright instead of conveying it to the appellants.
Shamir temporarily holds the portfolio of Interior Minister which is being administered for him by Deputy Minister Ronnie Milo, a Likud MK. Interior Minister Yitzhak Peretz of the ultra-Orthodox Shas Party resigned last month rather than comply with a Supreme Court order to issue a Jewish identification card to Shoshana Miller, an American immigrant converted to Judaism by a Reform rabbi.
According to the media reports, the six-month delay sought by Shamir would give him time to persuade Peretz to revoke his resignation and return Shas to the unity coalition government. His request reportedly cited the deliberations of the recently appointed Interministerial Committee on Conversions which has been given six months to find an acceptable formula for registering immigrants converted by non-Orthodox rabbis.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
