The Supreme Court handed down two important rulings this morning. It instructed the Interior Ministry to accept conversion-ceremonies carried out by the Reform and Conservative movements and to register the people involved as Jews. Former Chief Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu called on rabbis in Israel to accept converts as Jews only if they have undergone an Orthodox conversion according to time-honored Halakhic [Jewish legal] tradition. “On the one hand," he said, "the court intervenes to prevent the demolition of homes belonging to terrorists. On the other hand, the court intervenes to destroy the House of Israel, bringing gentiles into the House of Israel resulting in encouraging assimilation.”
NRP head Rabbi Yitzchak Levy called upon the religious parties in the government to set an ultimatum: Either a law is passed that will "right the wrong" and recognize only Halakhically-converted persons as true converts, or else "go to new elections in the hope that the national honor will be restored." Rabbi Levy said that the Supreme Court had sent an "explosive warhead at the heart of the Jewish People… The justices have long detached themselves from the people, and today they totally cut themselves off from Halakhah [Jewish Law] and cut the thread of Jewish identity."
Reactions in Shas were just as harsh. "The Supreme Court has become the most radical chapter of Meretz and the Reform movement," a party statement said. "The Court is undermining the Jewish character of the State of Israel… and is helping the fatal process of Jewish assimilation. Many sectors of the Israeli public simply have no trust in this Court." The Shas party has already begun preparing legislation to bypass the Court's ruling. Its proposal will stipulate that the Chief Rabbinate is the only body that can determine the validity of conversion to Judaism. Labor MK Eitan Cabel said that he would work to ensure that the legislation does not pass.
Chief Rabbi Yisrael Meir Lau said that the ruling drives a wedge in the public, and that it will be a source of "weeping for generations." Rabbi Lau said that the original leaders of the State, "headed by David Ben-Gurion, and even the British Mandate, recognized the Chief Rabbinate's authority to determine how people may join the Jewish Nation."
On the other hand, Stephen Hoffman, president of the United Jewish Communities, told a gathering of Jewish Agency board of governors members in Israel that those who are not Jewish according to Halakhah should still be accepted as members of the Jewish people. "Those who chose to join us should be made to feel welcome," he said. "There is room for a larger identification." Reform Rabbi Uri Regev said, "This ruling has historic significance, as it strengthens the Jewish pluralism in Israel and totally rejects the Orthodox establishment position."
Deputy Foreign Minister Rabbi Michael Melchior, of the left-wing religious-Zionist Meimad movement, said, "Questions of conscience and faith should not be decided in the courts or in the Knesset..."
Before I get jumped, I support vouchers, I support a US envoy to the Vatican and I support aid to Israel. I am just sick of liberals trying to always have things their way.
Reform and Conservative perversions