The State of the Jews

Another of the endless series of reports about the disgrace of Israeli officialdom’s treatment of converts – once again despite the approval of the conversion by the official Orthodox rabbinate.

The thing about power, it corrupts. And religious power? It just corrupts religion…

(Hat tip: Religion and State in Israel.)

Maksim and Alina were due to exchange their wedding vows in 10 weeks, but instead of being busy preparing for the joyful event, they have been going through a nightmare – Their marriage was not approved by the Chief Rabbinate clerks in Ashkelon, where the couple resides.

…

Two weeks ago, after setting the wedding date, Maksim and Alina went to the Rabbinate in their hometown to open a file with a marriage registrar.

To their surprise, Ashkelon’s chief Rabbi Haim Bloy told the couple he will not approve their marriage, and suggested that they get registered in a different city.

“The rabbi explained that because Maksim only observes some of the mitzvot, we will have to register in a different city,” said Alina, explaining that “meanwhile I met with a different rabbi that agreed to register me, but not in my city, because in Ashkelon ‘they don’t register converts for marriage’.”

…

Rabbi Shaul Farber, director of the Jewish Life Information Center (ITIM), said on Thursday that “it is not plausible that marriage registrars who are employed by the country and are getting paid by the Chief Rabbinate will make up their own mind whether to recognize documents issued by their employers.”

“Registrars who distrust the Chief Rabbinate must resign from their positions. If they don’t do it themselves, the state should do it,” Farber added.

Following this recent phenomenon, ITIM institution opened a hotline that will guide converts and help them bypass the rabbis. The hotline number is 1-700-500-507.

Whatever our politicians may tell their overseas donors, official Israel, when it even notices the Diaspora, has a profound disrespect for it.

Rabbi Dr. Ed Rettig (my dad) and Rabbi Dr. Seth Farber explain in The Jerusalem Post how tragic this disrespect can be in the field of conversion.

Of the convert Ilana, they write:

Scandalously, Ilana lives without medical insurance, is unable to work, and has been waiting for more than two years for her case for citizenship to make it to the Supreme Court. In every other Jewish community in the world, Ilana is Jewish. Not here. This is because the Interior Ministry has taken it upon itself to review conversions that were performed worldwide in terms of its own bureaucratic criteria.

Let’s be clear here. Ilana’s conversion was Orthodox. Israeli law demands official recognition of her conversion. And those refusing to recognize it are not rabbis. They’re not religious at all, in fact. They’re merely Interior Ministry pencil-pushers trying to prevent the “floodgates” of conversion granting automatic Israeli citizenship through the Law of Return.

Since 2002, however, the State of Israel has taken a step backward, refusing immediate recognition of conversion certificates issued by recognized communities in the Diaspora. Today, if someone converts in a Diaspora community, it will take at least a year before the State of Israel recognizes that person as Jewish.

Though the Supreme Court ruled in 2005 that all converts should immediately be allowed to emigrate under the Law of Return – a law that has become sacrosanct in Israel-Diaspora relations – the Justice and Interior ministries continue to insist on draconian “citizenship tests” for converts that horrify each of us, from our different perspectives.

American Orthodox rabbis, the Interior Ministry feels, can’t be trusted to decide who is in and who is out of the Jewish people.

It is the feeling of a handful of ignorant bureaucrats – ignorant of Judaism and Jewish identity, and ignorant of Israeli law – that decides the day.

Why? Because the Diaspora is silent and respectful. Instead of demanding respect for their support and love, the Diaspora assumes Israelis are either their betters or their “ethnic” cousins. Either way, you can’t demand too much.

So Ilana falls through the cracks.