The question of who is a Jew has once again threatened to topple an Israeli government, writes MARK WEISS
ISRAEL IS one of the few countries in the world without internationally recognised borders. But the Jewish state has also failed to resolve another, more fundamental question: who is a Jew? The question was again in the news this week, and, not for the first time, threatened to topple an Israeli government.
Under intense pressure from American Jewry, prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu made it clear he could not accept a Bill changing the rules for conversion to Judaism drawn up by a number of coalition partners.
The proposal came about as a result of a bizarre alliance between ultra-Orthodox parties and Yisrael Beiteinu, the party headed by foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman, which gets most of its support from immigrants from the former Soviet Union.
The ultra-Orthodox and the “Russians” are usually diametrically opposed on questions of religion and state, but on this occasion they found common cause in a Bill that would allow municipal rabbis to carry out conversions whilst maintaining, and even strengthening, the ultra-Orthodox monopoly over who is considered Jewish in the Jewish state.
When the state of Israel was established in 1948, the Law of Return granted any “Jew” the right to immigrate and become a citizen, but it failed to actually define who was a Jew, merely stating who had a right to immigrate. Because the Nazis had defined a Jew, and sent to the death camps anyone with at least one Jewish grandparent, a similar definition was used by Israel in accepting the victims of Nazism who sought refuge in the nascent Jewish state.
A more recent wave of immigration, from the former Soviet Union in the 1990s, included some 350,000 people who had a Jewish partner or Jewish grandparent but were not considered Jewish under halacha, Jewish religious law, which defines a Jew matrilineally.
The vast majority of the 350,000 have still not converted to Judaism, and Yisrael Beiteinu hopes that by authorising local city rabbis to carry out conversions most of the group will be able to find a sympathetic liberal rabbi, convert and become full citizens.
So where is the problem? And why are Jews abroad, particularly the powerful American Jewish community, up in arms? The vast majority of American Jews belong to the more liberal reform or conservative branches of Judaism. In Israel, citizens tend to classify themselves as secular, religious or ultra-Orthodox. The local reform and conservative movements are tiny, with a predominance of new immigrants from western countries.
All Israeli coalitions have contained at least one religious party and the pay-off has to been to maintain the monopoly exerted by these parties on conversions. American Jews feared that under the new Bill Israel would never recognise conversions to Judaism carried out by reform and conservative rabbis abroad.
This time, American Jewry decided to exert extensive pressure on prime minister Netanyahu, warning him of dire consequences if the Bill became law, including a massive drop in Jewish financial backing for Israel.
Natan Sharansky, head of the Jewish Agency, warned that the Bill would alienate the powerful Jewish communities abroad. “When all the reform and conservative congregations have rallied to support us, we can’t allow ourselves to tell them we don’t accept them as Jews,” he said.
Opposition leader Tzipi Livni noted that the prime minister calls on diaspora Jewry to rally to Israel’s side in times of crisis. “This Bill would make it harder for diaspora Jewry to feel a connection to Israel when we need to be doing everything possible to draw them closer. It’s especially hard for young Americans to connect to Israel if Israel becomes synonymous with the ultra-Orthodox.” So a compromise was sought.
Officials from the prime minister’s office are negotiating with representatives from Yisrael Beiteinu and the ultra-Orthodox parties on a compromise that will be acceptable to all the coalition parties without alienating Jewish communities abroad.
It is a fair bet that deliberate ambiguity will be in the minds of the negotiators as they thrash out the wording of the revised conversion Bill, and that the world’s only Jewish state will still not define who is, and who is not, a Jew.