U.S. Orthodox Rabbis Flatly Rebuff Israeli Mizrachi View on Advice on Vote on Conversion Law Change

The Union of Orthodox Rabbis of the United States and Canada issued a statement today flatly denying an assertion last week by a world Mizrachi leader in Israel that the Ashkenazic Chief Rabbi, Isser Yehuda Unterman, had only advised National Religious Party deputies in the Knesset to vote for an amendment to tighten conversion procedures of the Law of Return and that Rabbi Unterman did not issue a halachic injunction to the NRP deputies to vote for it.

At issue was an amendment proposed by the Agudat Israel which would have made halachic conversions mandatory for prospective immigrants requiring conversion. All but one member of the NRP, Dr. Avner Sciaky, refused to abstain in the vote and he was fired from the Cabinet as Deputy Education Minister by Premier Golda Meir for so doing. The NRP had agreed to abstain on the voting to avoid a coalition crisis.

The UOR quoted from the Hebrew text of a statement by Rabbi Unterman to the NRP, in English translation, as declaring that “There is only one way before us, that is to vote for this bill without any wavering…when such a fundamental issue is under question, it is forbidden to make any calculations…stand firmly and vote for this bill.” Rabbi Zemah Zambrowsky, the chairman of the World Mizrachi-Hapoel Hamizrachi movement, made his assertion of the advisory aspect of Rabbi Unterman’s instructions to the NRP in a statement issued in Jerusalem on July 26.

The UOR, headed by Rabbi Moshe Feinstein, called the abstention of the NRP members an “outrageous action,” asserting that the NRP “acted against the Chief Rabbi of Israel” despite “the many demands and admonitions of great rabbis all over the world,” The UOR statement noted that Dr. Sciaky voted for the bill. The UOR said it planned “a large rabbinical conference” soon “to demand of all Mizrachi members over the world” a protest against the NRP deputies.