Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, November 13, 1995 TAG: 9511130111
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press|
DATELINE: JERUSALEM LENGTH: Medium
But the ruling did not compel the chief rabbinate, the top religious body in Israel, to recognize such conversions. The rabbinate still has the authority to refuse marriage and birth certificates requested by Jews converted by Reform and Conservative rabbis.
A Reform leader welcomed the ruling, saying it could help break a monopoly in Israel, where Orthodox rabbis have had exclusive control over marriages, divorces and religious conversions.
``I think it is a major step, not only in the area of constitutional law and the rule of law in Israel, but also in historic terms with regard to the state of Israel and the Jewish people,'' said Uri Regev, head of the Israel Religious Action Center, a Reform institution.
Chief Rabbi Yisrael Lau said the court's order was unacceptable and that the Orthodox establishment would not acknowledge as Jews those who were not converted according to strict Jewish law.
``We will not be able to recognize a conversion that is a fiction,'' Lau told Israel army radio. ``We will not be able to recognize as a member of the Jewish people one whose entrance has not been acceptable for generations under the Jewish law.''
The Supreme Court was ruling on an application by a woman who was born a Christian in Brazil and first tried to convert to Judaism in 1990.
Hava Goldstein now will be registered under civil law as a Jew on her identity card, but the rabbinate will not have to recognize her as a Jew under religious law.
That means she will not be able to have a recognized marriage in Israel, and her children could also have problems marrying. There are no civil marriages in Israel.
``Without civil marriage, and Reform and Conservative rabbis being able to marry, that means that these thousands and thousands and thousands of Israeli citizens are denied the basic human right of marriage,'' Regev said.
``When you ask the question `Who is a Jew?' in Israel, there isn't one answer,'' he added. ``A Jew for the purpose of marriage and divorce is one thing, and a Jew for the purpose of the law of return is another.''
Until now, Reform conversions performed abroad were usually recognized by the state but those in Israel were not.
The Reform movement is the largest stream of Judaism in the United States, where it claims a membership of more than 1.5 million out of about 3 million Jews who have an affiliation. Most of the rest belong to Orthodox and Conservative synagogues. About half of U.S. Jews are nonaffiliated.
by CNB