The Supreme Court and the State of Israel’s

Jewish Identity

by Nisson Wolpin

Israel’s Supreme Court has made no secret of its pursuing a course of liberal-oriented activism with the apparent goal of stripping the Jewish State of its very Jewishness. (See Yonoson Rosenblum’s article, “The Arrogance of Israel’s Elites,” JO, Dec. ’99.) Shockingly, the Court has decided that as a democracy, the State of Israel cannot authorize the building of settlements funded by Jewish Agency dollars if they are to be inhabited exclusively by Jews. A democracy must be as broadly egalitarian as possible. A new settlement must accommodate a population representative of the entire State’s makeup. In addition, the State’s Shabbos laws have been whittled away by judicial fiat, further reducing the Jewish content of something that is inherently Jewish – our national day of rest.

And now, in its most recent foray into anti-Torah activism, the Court has acted in a way that prompted the Jewish Telegraphic Agency to comment: “Non-Orthodox Jews both inside and outside Israel are celebrating a historic court ruling recognizing Reform and Conservative conversions as valid and binding upon the Jewish state.” (Feb. 21, ’02) The JTA release reports further:

Given the complexity of Israeli society, however, the ruling by Israel’s High Court of Justice is not binding on the Israeli rabbinate.

The result is that the Interior Ministry must now register Israelis who had Reform or Conservative conversions as Jews on their national identification cards – but the rabbinate will not consider them Jews for issues such as marriage or burial….

Leaders of the non-Orthodox streams rejoiced after Wednesday’s ruling, which decided some 50 cases that had wended their way through the court system for years.

“The ruling has historical consequence because it strengthens Jewish pluralism in Israel,” said Rabbi Uri Regev, head of the World Union for Progressive Judaism, the umbrella agency for Reform and other liberal organizations in 40 countries.

“It effectively repels the Orthodox establishment that holds that Reform and Conservative converts aren’t worthy of being recognized because of the liberal identities of the rabbis that convert them,” he said.

“It’s obviously a complete and total victory,” said Rabbi Andrew Sacks, executive head of Israel’s Masorti Movement, as the Conservative movement is known in Israel.

The court’s language emphasizes the importance of not enshrining one stream of Judaism above others, Sacks said. “All those people who converted with us and are listed as Ukrainian or Peruvian or whatever, now they can have Jewish listed on their identity cards.”

On the one hand, the legal ramifications of this ruling are truly quite limited. Personal identity for the purpose of marriage and other religious functions is still determined by the rabbinate, as JTA reported. But on both the symbolic and the day-to-day practical levels, the decision is truly destructive. For the word “Jew” on national documents has now become meaningless. As Yonoson Rosenblum wrote in an Am Echad release,

The decision makes access to a printing press the primary criterion for conversion. Conversion certificates issued by humanistic Judaism, which denies the existence of G-d, or “secular conversions” a la Yossi Beilin would be equally valid, as would those of Jews for Christianity.

In other words, whoever “feels” Jewish, or claims to “identify with the Jewish people” for reasons ranging from culinary preferences to admiration for their creative abilities or even preserverance in face of adversity, can lay claim to “being Jewish.” More is really not needed by the criteria for Jewishness determined by the Supreme Court.

In effect, then, the defining factor in being Jewish in the Jewish State will no longer be the historic assembly of three million Jews at Mount Sinai – an event that even David Ben Gurion, founding Prime Minister of the State, acknowledged as defining our People, even though he did not live by Sinai’s directives. (He signed on the Status Quo agreement, which referred methods of personal identity as a Jew to the rabbanite; and subsequently agreed to the Law of Return’s conferring of immediate citizenship on any Jew who chooses to live in Israel – with “Jew” to be defined by halachic criteria, i.e., anyone born to a Jewish mother or converted to Judaism by a rabbinical court.) By contrast, according to the Supreme Court decision of February 20, any claim to being Jewish, as capricious or vaporous as it may be, would be adequate… and defining for the individual, with similar implications for the Jewish State. How utterly absurd that the qualifications for being accepted as a Jew – indisputably a religious designation– should be determined by a secular court!

On the personal level, Conservative and Reform converts will not benefit, and will ultimately suffer disappointment. Bear in mind that their conversions are simply invalid for numerous reasons. Beyond the lack of qualification of the “progressive” rabbis to oversee a conversion, the concept of Judaism that the candidates for conversion accept, and their commitment to live by it, totally ignores – and often violates – Basic Principles of Faith as accepted at Sinai, and codified by the Rambam and all authorities since. The principles include G-d’s creation and governance of the world, the efficacy of tefilla, the authenticity of Torah as G-d’s spoken word, and the incontrovertible legitimacy of the messages of the prophets – especially those of Moshe – as the word of G-d. Yet Reform and Conservative converts are not required to accept these beliefs, and by and large they don’t. Without these basic commitments, one cannot become a Jew (see Shulchan Aruch – Yoreh De’ah: Hilchos Geirim # 268). Yet, these well-meaning individuals will believe that they are Jewish.

As Israel’s Chief Ashkenazic Rabbi Yisrael Meir Lau told Army Radio,

“Their identity cards will be worthless. Tomorrow if they want to register to get married, the day after if they go to the Immigration Ministry to ask for their basket of benefits or citizenship, they’ll be told, ‘No, you’re only thought of as a Jew on the population rolls, while as far as everything else goes, you remain in your goyishness.’” (J.T.A.)

In other words, the court decision raises the hopes of spurious converts, only to have them shattered by the rude facts of life.

Rabbi Shmuel Bloom, Agudath Israel’s executive vice-president, foresaw widespread confusion looming in the wake of the Court decision:

“Multiple definitions of Jewishness are a recipe for societal disaster. Particularly in light of the large number of non-Jews who have immigrated to Israel in recent years, this decision could lead to a surge of non-Orthodox conversions by innocent people who incorrectly assume that they will be widely accepted as Jews – when, in fact, Jewish religious law and Orthodox Jews in Israel and around the world cannot recognize their conversions as valid. Numerous personal tragedies born of that dichotomy have resulted from widespread non-halachic conversions here in America. The same may well happen now in Israel.”

At a time when the Jewish People’s relationship with the Creator is most crucial, it is very painful to witness an official body of the Jewish State playing havoc with its defining elements.

We plead daily in the Tachanun prayer, “Shomer Yisroel”:

“Shomer Goy Echad…O Guardian of the unique nation, protect the remnant of the unique people; let not the unique nation be destroyed – those who proclaim the Oneness of Your Name, ‘Hashem is our G-d, Hashem – the One and Only!’”

This uniqueness defines us a people, and our commitment to honor and maintain this uniqueness provides us with the merit so crucial for our survival.

.

Back to Homepage