“Stop Religious Coercion. Start Pluralism and Tolerance.” These imperatives will headline a series of advertisements co-sponsored by three American Zionist organizations set to appear in five Israeli newspapers Wednesday.
The advertisements aimed at Knesset members seek to persuade the government to oppose a proposed amendment sponsored by the ultra-Orthodox Shas Party which would give the Rabbinical Courts authority to validate conversions, marriages and divorces performed abroad. The proposal is scheduled for a Knesset vote on Wednesday.
Friends of Labor Israel, Association of Reform Zionists (ARZA) and Mercaz (the Conservative Zionist movement) sponsored the ads. Friends of Labor Israel has also mounted a telegram campaign to Foreign Minister and Labor Party leader Shimon Peres expressing support for his efforts to defeat the bill.
At the same time, Hadassah, the American women’s Zionist organization, has undertaken its own efforts to oppose the proposed legislation.
These four American Zionist organizations have joined a number of other American Jewish groups in taking an emphatic stand against changes in the Law of Return or proposed legislation which would have the same ultimate effect of giving religious leaders authority over the validity of Conservative and Reform conversions.
A delegation of American and Canadian Jewish leaders which included representatives of the major fundraisers for Israel — the United Jewish Appeal, United Israel Appeal — and the Council of Jewish Federations, the National Jewish Community Relations Council and others left Sunday for an unscheduled trip to Israel in attempts to block passage of the amendment.
A WARNING BY THE DELEGATION
The delegation in Israel warned Tuesday that amending the Law of Return or other measures which would delegitimize Reform and Conservative Jewry would split Jewish communities abroad and widen the gap between Israel and world Jewry. If the legislation received a majority vote in Knesset, it would endanger UJA support and other contributions to Israel, the leaders warned.
Peres told the leaders that the “Who is a Jew?” issue and other proposed laws are being used as bargaining chips for coalitions and support for early elections. Peres said the issue should not become an internal political battle.
Simmy Ziv-El, executive director of Friends of Labor Israel, said the people supporting the amendments are “trying to legislate discrimination.” About 90 percent of affiliated American Jews are associated with the Reform and Conservative movements, he said.
“The government can’t send them a message saying ‘We want you to make aliya,’ but we will legislate you into the realm of the non-legitimate,” Ziv-El said. “This bill (the Rabbinical Courts law) is more pernicious and offensive than previous attempts to change the Law of Return.”
Ziv-El said the measure would take control over questions of citizenship and aliya out of the hands of government agencies which have traditionally controlled the matters and put that power solely in rabbinical hands. “It is blatantly circumventing the government ministry (Interior Ministry) that is supposed to deal with absorption,” he said.
HADASSAH SENDS LETTER TO MKS
Ruth Popkin, Hadassah national president, took a slightly different tack in her attempts to oppose the bill. Popkin sent letters to 13 MKs who have not yet taken a position in favor of the Rabbinical Courts bill urging them to break with Likud Party discipline and vote against the measure.
“Though I understand full well that your party (Likud) has for political reasons decided to take a position in favor of the Rabbinical Courts bill, we ask you for the future of both our communities to take a stand in opposing this harmful legislation,” Popkin’s letter said.
“We do not intend to interfere in Israel’s domestic jurisdiction, but this bill proposed to give Rabbinical Courts jurisdiction over conversions and marriages outside Israel. This could be the one issue that would divide the two great communities of world Jewry.”
Popkin’s letter referred to Likud’s decision to support the Shas-sponsored proposals and the proposed amendment to the Law of Return which would stipulate that a Jew be converted “according to halacha” to qualify for automatic Israeli citizenship granted to all Jews under the Law of Return.
Several months ago, Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir pledged that he would do everything in his power to assure passage of the amendments. This followed Shas’ threats to support Labor’s call for early elections if Likud did not support the measures.
On July 8, Likud MKs voted almost unanimously in favor of the amendment to the Law of Return and for a second Shas amendment which would require all converts to Judaism to obtain the (Orthodox) Israeli Chief Rabbinate’s endorsement in order to be fully recognized as Jews in Israel. Despite Likud’s support, both measures were narrowly defeated.
SHAS MAY SUBMIT SUBSTITUTE BILL
In other developments in Israel Tuesday, Shas, which is composed primarily of ultra-Orthodox Sephardic Jews, indicated it may submit a substitute bill if a Knesset majority for the Rabbinical Courts bill cannot be guaranteed. The substitute bill would require converts to submit to the Interior Ministry a document with details on their conversion process.
The latest proposal, like the Rabbinical Courts bill, is seen as an attempt by Shas to introduce the “Who is a Jew?” amendment through a “back door.”
The Shas proposal is expected to face obstacles in the Knesset Constitution Committee. National Religious Party MK Avner Sciaki warned that he will not vote for the bill because, according to Jewish law, it is forbidden to remind a convert of his/her conversion.
(JTA Tel Aviv correspondent Hugh Orgel contributed to this report.)
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