Partisans on various sides of the conversion debate in Israel would have us believe that if only their stance were adopted, the issue would be resolved. If only it were so easy.
The basic facts are these: Some 400,000 people who are not Jewish emigrated to Israel with the great release of Soviet Jewry. They are spouses, children or fathers of Jews, but not Jewish themselves. They are citizens of Israel. They pay taxes and serve in the IDF. Their non-Jewish status is problematic.
They also have electoral clout, and voted in large numbers for Avigdor Lieberman’s party, Yisrael Beiteinu, giving it a major place in the Knesset and the ruling Netanyahu coalition. One of the party’s Knesset members has sponsored a bill which he thinks will go a long way toward resolving the anomalous status of these hundreds of thousands of ex-Soviet non-Jewish Israelis.
His bill would decentralize conversions, allowing each local city chief rabbi in Israel to perform them. The assumption is that rabbis who actually know the people, rather than bureaucrats in Jerusalem, will more readily steer and increase people to convert to Judaism.
Here, then, are the partisans in this debate:
• The ex-Soviet citizens, represented by Knesset Member David Rotem and his bill.
• The Orthodox chief rabbinate in Israel.
• The existing centralized conversion authority in Israel.
• The leaders of the Reform, Conservative and other non-Orthodox denominations in the US.
• The leaders of the Orthodox Rabbinical Council of America in the US.
Rotem is living in a dream world if he thinks that by decentralizing conversions he will dramatically increase their number. Conversion is a spiritual path, not a political one. Local rabbis might more readily guide potential converts, but it is entirely unrealistic to think that this will alter the status of hundreds of thousands of people. Just do some simple math. Under any scenario, a rabbi or a teacher needs to meet with a potential convert many times. Are hundreds of thousands of rabbis or teachers available for this, even assuming no spiritual questions or difficulties on the part of hundreds of thousands of potential converts? Of course there are countless spiritual issues for every individual convert. Localizing conversions will, at best, make a small dent in the enormous dimensions of the problem. No solution here.
The chief rabbinate is not going to allow some sort of free-for-all mass conversion, absent spiritual integrity. Truth to tell, neither would the liberal denominations, if they controlled the chief rabbinate. The irreducible, inherent complexity of conversion will not go away no matter who is in charge. No solution here.
Witness: the existing centralized conversion authority in Israel has, over the period of more than a decade, performed some 40,000 conversions. The chief rabbinate has retroactively invalidated at least some of these conversions, perhaps all. Much is made of this — much debate, actually much anger or much support, depending on which side you’re on. But overlooked in the heated debate is that even this supposed grand solution and grand compromise — which was in full swing before the current Rotem bill and to which the opponents of the Rotem bill would return — has barely touched the problem. Forty thousand converts are a lot of converts, but a mere small percentage of the total number of Israelis of anomalous status. No solution here.
The leaders of the non-Orthodox denominations in the US are up in arms over what they see as this bill’s delegitimation of their own conversions. Actually, the bill gives the chief rabbinate final say over the conversion to be performed by the local city rabbis in Israel. Only by extension might they affect liberal conversions performed in the Diaspora. But let’s say, for the sake of argument, that the liberal Jewish leaders are right. Let’s say that their authority and conversions are threatened by this bill. Let’s assume that this is worth their strenuous protestations (including involving members of Congress, a rather dangerous tactic). Now let us further say that the Rotem bill is killed. We return to status quo ante. Then what? The existing centralized conversion authority in Israel barely addresses the problem. Even the dismantlement of the chief rabbinate would also leave Israel woefully understaffed by any rabbis — Orthodox, liberal or otherwise — to deal with this problem. No solution here.
The Orthodox Rabbinical Council of America says that it is not right for Diaspora Jews to interfere with the internal affairs of Israel. Well, the ox of the Orthodox is not being gored. Were it so, there would emerge a justification for such an intervention. More to the point, now what? Let the Rotem bill pass or let it fail. Either way, the massive human problem in Israel is not addressed. No solution here.
Let us keep one point in perspective: the ultimate villain here is not Rotem, not the liberal rabbis and not the Orthodox rabbis. The ultimate villain is the Communist regime that robbed Jews of Judaism. It will take more than Rotem’s bill — and more than opposition to Rotem’s bill —to forge a solution.
Copyright © 2010 by the Intermountain Jewish News