Orthodox Jews in Israel and abroad have reacted angrily to the High Court's decision March 31 to grant citizenship to some non-Orthodox converts who studied to be Jews in Israel.
The ruling was issued in response to a petition filed six years ago by the Conservative movement. The movement, whose institutions and clergy are not recognized or funded by the government because they are not Orthodox, demanded that converts who study in Israel but who go abroad for their actual conversions be granted citizenship under the country's Law of Return.
Immediately after the ruling Israel's top religious leaders, including present and former chief rabbis, announced that “there is no value or weight to ‘conversions' performed outside the framework of an Orthodox rabbinical court.” Such conversions, they said, “have no validity, and a person who undergoes such a conversion remains a Gentile in every way.”
Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar vowed to campaign for an amendment to exclude converts from the Law of Return, which grants citizenship to any person with a Jewish grandparent.
The Chief Rabbinate plans to convene an emergency meeting related to the ruling next week, as does the Knesset, Israel's parliament, which is expected to debate the court's ruling and its implications Wednesday.
Several Orthodox parliamentarians have announced their intention to draft legislation that would override the court ruling. When Israel was founded in 1948 the government placed all authority over religious matters, including marriage, divorce and conversion, in the hands of the Orthodox Rabbinate.
Religion News Service