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SHARON: CONVERSATION POLICY WON'T CHANGE
by Relly Sa'ar
Haaretz, September 7, 2004
The government will not change its policy on conversion to Judaism, and when conversions are performed in Israel, only Orthodox conversions will be recognized for the purposes of receiving Israeli citizenship, according to a decision made yesterday by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.
Sharon decided that the government would not initiate an amendment to the Law of Return that would prevent people who had undergone Reform or Conservative conversions abroad from being recognized as Jews and receiving Israeli citizenship. However, Reform or Conservative conversion in Israel would not be recognized for the purposes of receiving Israeli citizenship.
Interior Minister Avraham Poraz and stated his opposition to the prime minister's position.
The discussion took place to prepare the state's response for a High Court of Justice hearing that will take place in a few weeks on the conversion of 17 foreign workers and tourists who are long-time residents of Israel. The group first petitioned the High Court five years ago, demanding that their Reform or Conservative conversion be recognized for the purpose of receiving citizenship.
Last May, the High Court accepted the group's petition.
During the discussion, which was attended by Justice Minister Yosef Lapid, Attorney General Menachem Mazuz, Interior Minister Avraham Poraz, Labor and Social Affairs Minister Zevulun Orlev, Chief Rabbi Shlomo Ammar, and head of the conversion courts, Rabbi Haim Druckman, the prime minister said he wanted to avoid conflict with the Jews in the U.S., most of whom are non-Orthodox, and he therefore opposed changing the Law of Return. However, he also wanted to avoid a rift with the ultra-Orthodox parties in the Knesset, with whom he has holding coalition talks.
Sharon instructed Mazuz to present the government's response to the High Court in the form of the Ne'eman Committee recommendations. In 1998, the committee recommended establishing a conversion institute common to all three streams of Judaism, under the auspices of the Jewish Agency. At the end of their course of study, candidates would be converted only by an Orthodox religious court. The committee's recommendations were approved by the cabinet and the Knesset, but not written into law.
Poraz told Sharon during yesterday's discussion that he was not obligated to accept the Ne'eman Committee's recommendations. He said the recommendations perpetuated the Orthodox conversion monopoly and "give no solution to tens of thousands of immigrants from the C.I.S. who came to Israel by virtue of the Law of Return but are not considered Jewish by Halakha (Jewish law). They now seek a less severe process than Orthodox conversion."
Poraz announced that he was going to present his position to the High Court as a minority position.
In a discussion in the prime minister's office two weeks ago, Mazuz said that if the state wanted to prevent non-Orthodox conversion it would have to change the Law of Return. But in yesterday's discussion he stated that the Ne'eman recommendations could be presented in the High Court, as Sharon wanted. Mazuz is concerned that the High Court will consider the state's position discrimination against the Reform and Conservative movements.
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