Religious Parties Still Powerful, but ‘who is a Jew is Not the Issue

While the problem of forming a new government continues, political observers are asking — appropriately on the eve of Passover — why is this government crisis different from all other crises?

Shimon Peres of Labor and Yitzhak Shamir of Likud are still courting the pivotal religious parties as ardently now as they did after the inconclusive 1988 elections, but neither suitor has been asked for a solemn vow to amend the Law of Return.

That’s because the Orthodox and ultra-Orthodox factions, though still using their position as power brokers between the major parties to promote sectarian interests, are no longer wielding “Who Is a Jew?” as the decisive factor in any deal.

Menachem Porush, veteran Knesset member of the Agudat Yisrael party, recently quoted a Talmudic aphorism: “Just as it is a mitzvah to say something at the right time, so, too, is it a mitzvah to refrain from saying it at the wrong time.”

From the relatively moderate National Religious Party to the ultra-Orthodox Agudah and its recent offshoots, Shas and Degel HaTorah, the message seems to have penetrated that “Who Is a Jew?” is a non-starter.

That issue notwithstanding, the religious parties have discovered that their influence over the personal lives of Israelis — particularly in the areas of marriage and divorce — has not appreciably diminished for lack of the amendment.

The entire “Who Is a Jew?” issue revolves around the more stringent definition of a Jew that the Orthodox have long wanted incorporated into the Israeli Law of Return. They would have the right of automatic Israeli citizenship conferred not upon any Jew coming here, but upon those who are born to Jewish mothers or converted to Judaism according to the Orthodox interpretation of Jewish law, or halacha.

The Orthodox want the words “according to halacha” added to identity cards after the word “converted.” This would invalidate conversions performed by Reform, Conservative or Reconstructionist rabbis, who represent the majority of Jews in Diaspora communities but are not recognized in Israel.

When Yitzhak Shamir promised the Orthodox parties in 1988 that “Who Is a Jew?” would sail through the Knesset if they joined a Likud coalition, overseas Jews were galvanized.

Fund-raisers for Israel spoke of a sharp decline of income, and political supporters warned that Israel would lose its most effective friends. Philanthropic support for Orthodox institutions in Israel and abroad declined.

The lesson was not lost on the Orthodox. In any event, they have learned to live with the existing legislation by concentrating their clout on the marriage and divorce laws, which in Israel are administered exclusively by the religious authorities of each faith.

While the High Court of Justice ruled last year that converts cannot be denied identity cards describing them as Jewish, the minister of interior, Rabbi Arye Deri of Shas, cleverly ordered that future ID cards bear a legend explaining the rubric “Jewish” is not prima facie evidence of religious status.

This accomplishes, without need for Knesset intervention, the basic goal of the Orthodox: to keep non-Orthodox converts from mixing into the general Jewish population.

Deri’s rule also facilitates the smooth entry of hundreds, possibly thousands of problematic Soviet Jewish olim, whose “Jewishness” by halachic standards can be clarified at some later time.