B’nai B’rith Urges Israel Not to Change ‘law of Return’

B’nai B’rith has called on Israel to reject any legislative attempts to limit the Law of Return solely to Orthodox Jews, terming such a move ill-considered and a denial of those rights that “Israel has properly recognized for the Jewish people as a whale.”

In a resolution adopted unanimously by the organization’s board of governors at its annual winter meeting here, B’nai B’rith urged the Begin government and Knesset to defeat a new drive that would deny automatic Israeli citizenship — past, present and future — to Jews converted by Reform and Conservative rabbis.

The board declared that limiting the Law of Return would, in effect, brand as illegitimate two major branches of Judaism, the Reform and Conservative. “It would ultimately sap Israel’s centrality in world Jewish life,” the board said, inevitably weakening both world Jewry, “including Orthodox communities,” and Israel itself.

“This regrettable proposal is related to the rejection in Israel of the legitimacy of non-Orthodox rabbis which we similarly deplore,” the B’nai B’rith leaders added.