TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) – The Israeli Supreme Court on Monday dealt a major blow to the country’s powerful Orthodox establishment, ruling that people converting to Judaism through Israel’s reform and conservative movements are also Jewish and have the right to become a citizen.
The historic ruling, 15 years in the making, centered around the flammable question of who is Jewish and marked a major victory for the Reform and Conservative movements. These liberal schools of Judaism, representing the vast majority of affiliated American Jews, have long been marginalized in Israel.
“If the State of Israel claims to be the nation-state of the Jewish world, then the State of Israel must recognize all denominations of Judaism and give them equality and respect,” said Rabbi Gilad Kariv, head of the reform movement in Israel and a candidate with the Liberal Labor Party in the upcoming parliamentary elections.
Israel’s powerful ultra-Orthodox establishment has a virtual monopoly on religious affairs for Israeli Jews, oversees life-cycle rituals such as weddings and funerals, and uses their political clout to influence things like immigration.
Monday’s ruling put an end to that power by saying that the state must allow Jews who undergo conversions with the liberal movements in Israel to obtain citizenship.
“Jews who were legally converted into a reform or conservative community while in Israel should be recognized as Jews,” the court said in its majority decision. It said the ruling only applied to the issue of citizenship and not religious matters.
Israel previously recognized conversions through the liberal streams carried overseas. This statement now applies to conversions within Israel.
The ruling does not solve the problems faced by people who qualify for citizenship under the so-called law of return, but who are not considered Jewish under religious law.
The law of return grants citizenship to anyone with at least one Jewish grandparent, while the religious law requires someone to have a Jewish mother. These differing definitions allowed tens of thousands of people, mostly from the Soviet Union, to emigrate to Israel, only to be discriminated against when seeking religious services from the state.
Monday’s ruling only directly affects about 30 people a year, such as spouses of Israeli citizens, proponents say. But both supporters and opponents of the decision suggested that there was much deeper symbolism.
“It says the Jewish world is one,” said Nicole Maor, the lawyer who represented the reform movement.
“Anyone who becomes Jewish during a reformation or something like that is not Jewish,” said David Lau, one of Israel’s two chief rabbis. “No Supreme Court ruling in this way or that will change this fact.”
The ultra-Orthodox are important allies of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with great political power.
Home Secretary Aryeh Deri, leader of the ultra-Orthodox Shas party, condemned the decision, saying it would lead to deep divisions in Israeli society.
“I promise to enact the law to ensure that only conversions under Orthodox religious law will be recognized in the State of Israel,” said Deri, whose ministry is responsible for immigration policy.
Netanyahu, who is running for re-election in Israel’s March 23 contest, posted another tweet from the Likud party saying the decision should be left to “the people and the Knesset.”
The reformist and conservative currents of Judaism have had an increasingly tense relationship with Netanyahu, who is highly committed to the success of the Israeli vaccination campaign ahead of the March 23 elections. The Orthodox, including the ultra-Orthodox who ignore Netanyahu’s COVID battle plan, are a major part of his supporters.
Netanyahu’s tensions with non-Orthodox movements have increased in recent years. They are underscored by his 2017 decision under heavy Orthodox pressure to cancel plans for an expanded mixed-sex prayer room at the Western Wall, Judaism’s holiest place of worship. Netanyahu’s close ties to his ultra-Orthodox political partners, as well as his strong alliance with former President Donald Trump, alienated even more large parts of the American Jewish community. Most American Jews tend to hold liberal political views.
Avigdor Lieberman, leader of Yisrael Beitenu, a party popular with former Soviet immigrants, welcomed the ruling. “Yisrael Beitenu will continue to fight against religious coercion and will maintain the character of the State of Israel as a Jewish, liberal Zionist state,” he wrote on Twitter.
Yamina party leader and prime minister Naftali Bennett said the Supreme Court went too far and called for a legal solution.
“The recognition of the State of Israel through conversion will be determined by the democratically elected representatives of the people, not by lawyers,” he tweeted. “Conversion procedures,” he added, must be “legalized”.
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