Move Developing in Israel to Reverse Supreme Court Ruling on Who is a Jew

The Ministry of Interior today ordered its Haifa office to delay the registration of the children of Lt. Commander Benjamin Shalit as Jews by nationality. The instructions were issued in the expectation that the Knesset will pass legislation nullifying last Friday’s majority ruling by the Israeli Supreme Court which allows Israelis to hold Jewish nationality without being Jewish by religion. The Shalit children, though Israeli citizens by birth, are not considered Jewish according to halachah–religious law–because their Scottish-born mother who professes no religion, was never converted to Judaism.

The Orthodox National Religious Party threatened Sunday to resign from the national coalition government unless legislation is introduced in the Knesset reversing the high court’s decision. Most political observers believe the religious party will have its way as it has on previous occasions when issues arose questioning the Orthodox interpretation of who is a Jew. Labor Party and NRP leaders met last night and reportedly reached an “understanding.” The right-wing nationalist Herut party, a component of Gahal, the second largest political faction in Israel, came out in support of the Religious Party’s demands. Its Gahal partner, the Liberal Party, is yet to be heard from.

The Attorney General said today that he was considering initiating criminal proceedings against persons who have written threatening letters to Supreme Court justices over the Shalit case. The justices disclosed that they received many letters while the case was still subjudice trying to influence their decisions, which constitutes contempt of court under Israeli law. They did not disclose the identity of the letter writers but said that some of the letters came from Government sources and were written on official State letterheads. The Attorney General said the writers of those letters enjoyed parliamentary immunity and could not be prosecuted. But threatening letters, received after the court ruling in the case by the five justices who wrote the majority decision, could be the subject of criminal proceedings, he said. He said that those letters came mostly from religious fanatics who occupy no official positions. The number of letters was not disclosed.

SCHEDULED CABINET MEETING EXPECTED TO NULLIFY LEGISLATION

The Cabinet will hold a special session on Thursday on the issue of the high court’s decision and is expected to initiate nullifying legislation. The exact form the legislation will take is uncertain but quick action is expected. Observers believe the Government will introduce secondary legislation that will enable the Minister of Interior to instruct clerks to register Israelis as Jews according to religious precepts. These instructions could be amended by another Interior Minister at some future time. The present Minister of Interior, Moshe Shapiro, heads the National Religious Party.

Observers said the Government is anxious not to delay the matter because delay would enable more extreme religious parties to demand stricter legislation or secular parties to seek parliamentary affirmation of the court’s decision. One possibility mentioned is that the Government will drop the category of nationality from identity cards, leaving only religion. That would render the Supreme Court’s decision academic. Such a move was suggested when the high court first opened hearings in the Shalit case nearly a year ago but was rejected by the Government at the time.

The Government is most anxious to avoid a cabinet crisis that would be precipitated by a Religious Party walk-out and also to mute the controversy which has aroused passions on both sides of the issue. (The court’s decision has already had echoes in Jewish communities abroad where it was bitterly denounced in Orthodox circles. Rabbi Henry Siegman, executive vice president of the Synagogue Council of America, an umbrella organization embracing the Reform, Conservative and Orthodox branches of Judaism in America, said yesterday that the decision “may very well trigger something the Jewish community has been trying to avoid–a Kulturkampf, a cultural conflict between religious and secular Jews.” Something of a conflict has already developed in Orthodox ranks in the United States. The Rabbinical Alliance, which has often been at odds with other Orthodox factions, today blamed the Israeli Supreme Court’s decision on so-called “liberal” Orthodoxy. It claimed that the “liberal” Orthodox rabbinate helped generate an attitude of disregard for the sanctity of Jewish religious law by association with non-Orthodox rabbinic and synagogue bodies. The Orthodox Agudat Israel of America denounced the Israeli court’s ruling and claimed that it would “give huge impetus to the vanishing Jew by encouraging assimilation.” The organization’s executive board contended that the decision removed one of the major deterrents to inter-marriage. It urged “traditional Jews to unite in a massive effort to change the laws of Israel” to conform with the Orthodox concept of Jewish identity.)