Above: Benjamin Netanyahu

Netanyahu And Haredim Scrap Conversion Reform, Vote To Give Haredim Near-Monopoly Over Conversion To Judaism

Shmarya Rosenberg • FailedMessiah.com



The government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu voted to amend the conversion reform regulations that were enacted just seven months ago by the previous Netanyahu-led government, thereby essentially scrapping them, the Jerusalem Post reported.



The difference between then and now is that Netanyahu’s current government depends on haredi political parties to stay in power; Netanyahu’s previous government did not. Netanyahu and his Likud Party promised the Ashkenazi haredi United Torah Judaism Party (UTJ) in writing that it would support canceling the conversion reforms if UTJ agreed to join the government.



These now-cancelled reforms were meant to take conversions to Judaism out of the monopolistic centralized control of Israel’s haredi-controlled Chief Rabbinate and put them in the hands of any state-employed head rabbi of a city, town or rural area. While all of these local chief rabbis are Orthodox, some are moderate Zionist Orthodox who are more liberal on issues related to conversion.



Conversely, the Chief Rabbis of Israel and their top advisers and functionaries are all haredi non-Zionists strongly opposed to decentralization of conversions and to the moderate Zionist Orthodox rabbis themselves.



Until several years ago, conversions were decentralized and there is nothing in halakha (Orthodox Jewish law) that prohibits three men knowledgable in the conversion process from forming their own ad hoc beit din (religious court) when need be and converting someone. That is exactly what many Modern Orthodox and even haredi rabbis did in the diaspora, especially in the US and Latin America, for much of the 19th and 20th centuries. But if that process is done today in Israel, even if the members of the beit din are all rabbis with ordination from Israel’s Chief Rabbinate, the state will not recognize the conversion as valid.



Avigdor Liberman, the head of the secular primarily Russian Yisrael Beiteinu Party who served as the previous Netanyahu’s government’s foreign minister, accused Ntanyahu’s new government of betraying immigrants from the former Soviet Union, many of whom are not technically Jewish in the eyes of halakha (Orthodox Jewish law).



“We’re talking here about a government that is totally controlled by the haredi parties and is making Israeli society once again a captive to extremist elements who are making the lives of Israeli citizens more difficult.…[Israelis] want to live in a state of tolerant and enlightened Judaism and not in a benighted country that subjugates itself to the most extreme haredi elements,” Liberman said.



Under the amended conversion regulations, local chief rabbis of cities, towns and rural areas can still form their own conversion courts – but only with the approval of the Council of Israel’s Chief Rabbinate. Since Israel’s two chief rabbis (one Sefardi and the other Ashkenazi) and almost every member of the Council are haredi and are vehemently opposed to decentralizing conversions, that needed approval is unlikely to be given.



The vote to amend (and therefore scrap) the conversion reform was backed by the religious right-wing of the Zionist Orthodox right-wing HaBayit HaYehudi Party. While HaBayit HaYehudi’s chairman, Education Minister Naftali Bennett, and the party’s #2, Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked voted against amending the reforms, Agriculture Minister Uri Ariel of the party’s Tekuma faction skipped today’s vote while MK Bezalel Smotrich, the only other Tekuma MK, reportedly tweeted that "canceling the conversion reform is good and will contribute to the status and trustworthiness of conversions,” reflecting the opinion of harda”l (haredi-lite) Zionist Orthodox rabbis.



The conversion reform was supposed to be passed by the full Knesset as a law during the previous Netanyahu government. But Netanyahu himself blocked it from coming to a final vote (which it would have easily passed) and instead worked out a compromise to mollify haredim that saw the bill adopted by the cabinet in the form of amended government regulations.



Cynics at the time noted that haredim did not have the votes to block the bill and pointed out that passing the reforms as amended government regulations meant they could be easily and swiftly overturned by another government. They also noted that Netanyahu was fawning at the feet of the haredi political parties for the sole purpose of getting their support to form the next the government – which, it turns out, is exactly what happened. Netanyahu brought down his own government and called for new elections shortly after the conversion reforms were passed by his cabinet, and then formed a government with the haredi parties less than three months ago.