A national rabbinical conference of 2,000 Israeli Orthodox leaders called on the Israel Government today to rescind its regulations allowing any individual to identify himself as a Jew for purposes of registration and allowing private non-religious-sponsored burial societies to operate.
The parley, which was addressed by Israel’s two Chief Rabbis–Isaac Herzog and Itzhak Nissim–warned the government that these “anti-religious moves” would alienate Jewry abroad and undermine Jewish unity. It fervently pleaded that these actions would destroy the “uniqueness” of Israel by an excess of secularism.
The issue of “who is a Jew,” which surrounded the registration regulations, split the Israel coalition government some months ago and resulted in the National Religious Party walking out of the Cabinet, leaving Premier David Ben Gurion to govern with a bare majority. The regulation divesting the rabbinate of monopoly control of burial societies followed a wave of indignation when a child of mixed parentage who had died was refused burial in a Jewish cemetery.
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