JewsByChoice.org

I just received an email from Rabbi Menachem Creditor of Netivot Shalom and the Shefa Network regarding a Conversion Bill that’s about to be presented to the Knesset. I’ve already posted about it here but I thought I should pass along Rabbi Creditors request on the main blog.

Despite my own burnout and apathy on this subject, I would urge everyone to take a couple of minutes and make your voices heard on this. It is our future that’s being decided here after all. I know I’m going to fly off an email, I hope you will to.

UPDATE: Rabbi Ginsberg has uploaded a YouTube video sharing his thoughts on the issue . Also the Jpost has a great editorial up on the subject.  Here is a copy from a forum thread I started this evening.

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URGENT ACTION REQUESTED regarding Knesset Conversion Bill

Dear Friends,

We need your help on a matter of urgency concerning a bill that will come before the Knesset. We have received word from our colleagues in Israel that a bill may be put forward for passage as soon as tomorrow which affects conversion and we need as many of us and our congregants to forward the following letter to Prime Minister Netanyahu and to your Israeli Ambassador.

The bill sponsored by MK David Rotem of Yisrael Beitenu, deals with both the authority of the Chief Rabbinate and matters of Conversion. The Rotem Bill concerns three matters:

1. It grants legal authority to the Chief Rabbinate for Conversions (while until now there was de facto recognition this gives legal recognition to the role of the Chief Rabbinate in this area) and would make it much more difficult for conversions to be performed by our Movement, by more “open-minded” Orthodox rabbis, and by Reform rabbis.

2. It provides for the ability of local rabbis in Israel to establish conversion courts. This is a good part of the bill of which we are supportive because it will potentially permit the establishment of more forward looking conversion courts. However, the first part of the bill passes, the Chief Rabbinate may declare these courts null and void, which would obviate any cause for our support.

3. Section 3 of this bill is highly problematic. Here is the summary of Section 3 by our teacher, Rabbi Reuven Hammer:

“Section 3 of the proposed conversion bill that we strongly oppose states that anyone that who entered Israel as a non-Jew and then converted to Judaism-either in Israel or the Diaspora would not be eligible for citizenship under the Law of Return. First of all this is exactly the case that we now have before the Supreme Court, asking that our conversions in Israel be recognized and citizenship rights granted to our converts. This is an attempt to go around the Supreme Court. Secondly, the wording is so vague that it could mean that if such a person had visited Israel at any time, no matter when, their conversion would not be recognized for citizenship in the future. Thirdly this would be the first time that Israel is officially making a distinction between one who is born a Jew and a righteous convert, something that we find deplorable and unsupportable in Jewish Law. Since our movement is the movement that is most involved in conversion in America and elsewhere, we and our congregants are the primary target of the bill. We urge everyone to make their protest known immediately to the Israeli government.”

WE STRONGLY URGE THAT YOU CALL UPON YOUR COMMUNITIES TONIGHT TO FORWARD THE FOLLOWING LETTER OR ITS EQUIVALENT TO THE PRIME MINISTER AND YOUR AMBASSADOR.

The Honorable Benjamin Netanyahu

Prime Minister of Israel
Office of the Prime Minister

Jerusalem, Israel

Dear Prime Minister Netanyahu,

We write to request your immediate intervention to prevent passage of the legislation being brought forward by MK David Rotem (‫הצעת חוק הרבנות הראשית תיקון- סמכות בעניני גיור)

Passage of this bill in its present form especially section 3, will have the effect of providing for a path to alter the Law of Return or, at the least, cause undue hardship to anyone in Israel who has come from Diaspora communities and seeks conversion in Israel.

Sadly, this is reminiscent of those attempts in 1997 to enact similar legislation which ultimately led to the establishment of the Ne’eman Commission.

While we are supportive of your efforts to create greater accessibility to conversion courts in Israel and have done all we can to aid in this effort, the overall impact of the Rotem Bill will set back these efforts. Moreover this legislation will adversely impact the work of our Masorti movement and its members in Israel. This we cannot abide.

Even more regrettably, should this bill be enacted, it will exacerbate a widening gap between Diaspora and Israel communities, which we are all working very hard to avoid.

Therefore, we believe it is imperative that you, Israel’s leader, who cares so deeply about the well-being of our people, intervene and urge withdrawal of this bill.

The email for Prime Minister Netanyahu is:

Prime.Minister’sOffice@it.pmo.gov.il

For Amb. Oren’s office:

info@washington.mfa.gov.il

For a list of other Ambassadors click here

This just came to me via email and I thought it was worth mentioning.

This evening the  NewCAJE is hosting a webinar featuring one of my very favorite rabbis. I’m going to try to make this if I can as it’s sure to be some good learning and proceeds are going to support and important organization. Hope some of you can join me. Also please feel free to pass on this information to anyone you think may be interested.

Oh and if you are interested in getting a taste of what Rav Artson is like check this out.

NEWCAJE LehrhausOnLine

PRESENTS:

Rabbi Bradley Shavit Artson

Almighty? No way!

Learning to Love the God you Actually Believe In

LIVE AND INTERACTIVE MARCH 3rd

6pm Pacific/9pm Eastern

also recorded for learning at your convenience

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In his youth, Brad Artson grew up struggling with the notion of a God.  Later, when he became a rabbi and took his first pulpit, he noticed that many congregants struggle with concepts of God  that reflect what they believe are the dominant theology of Judaism.Holding these ideas about God, did not seem to serve people well when they experienced the most difficult moments of their lives. In this webinar, Artson will suggest that there are problems with the dominant notions of theology. He will explain that he believes that many, many Jews have rejected these ideas which leave them in a qandry about their religious beliefs. His approach, called “process theology” articulates the ideas that are actually held by many Jews into a theological language that everyone can understand.

Rabbi Artson will raise many questions in his presentation including:

What is the nature of God that most people have been taught?

How does our concept of God affect how we feel about the things that happen to us in our lives

How does a personal God relate to human beings?

How can each of us find the God that we can believe in?

This teaching will give you a new perspective on HOW to think about God. You may wonder…

• Why no one ever told you this information before?
• Whether the God Artson describes is really the God of the Bible and the prayerbook?
• Whether this God still demands prayer or good works or mitzvot from you?

Click here for info and to register!

YNet news reported an interesting look at at least one aspect of the fallout of the conversion crisis in Israel.  The numbers presented by Rabbi Israel Rosen to the Chief Rabbinate’s conversion department and religious courts show a 12% drop in the rate of conversions – all of which must be sanctioned by the Rabbinate if they happen in Israel – in 2009.  YNet also points out that the Center for Jewish Life Information reported a 27% drop in 2008 from the previous year.  While Rabbi Rosen goes on to basically blame the Religious Zionist establishment and a public relations problem, I believe Shmarya over at the FailedMessiah blog has a more accurate assessment of the problem:

It seems that at the root of Rosen’s thought is the idea that converts can ignore haredi revocations and the effects those revocations can and do have on the lives of converts and their descendants. In Rosen’s apparent view, only the National Religious rabbis have true legitimacy, and the actions of haredim, while troublesome in the short term, have no long term import.

But the source the decline in conversions isn’t lack of National Religious spin; the source is potential converts themselves, who see that no matter how Orthodox they are, they run the very real risk of waking up years after their conversions to find the state’s haredi-controlled rabbinical courts – and, therefore, the state itself – no longer considers them or their descendants to be Jewish.

Obviously this situation has a more significant impact on people who attempt to convert within Israel, but the larger issue of increasing Haredi control over the status of converts within Israel can effect all of us who have joined Am Yisrael in the diaspora.  I can assure readers that the Haredi establishment has no interest in non-Haredi converts from overseas being recognized in Israel either, and so we do all have a stake in this fight.

Anyone who decides to join the Jewish people through conversion needs to be aware that issues of Jewish status, both in their home communities and in Israel, are never going to be concrete or a given.  You can have the “most Orthodox” conversion you can fine and someone, somewhere, with power over the assessment of your status, will decide you aren’t Jewish enough.  This can certainly be frustrating, but it basically comes with the territory.  I continue to be hopeful that this situation will change, and organizations like Tzohar (צהר), the Reform Movement’s Israel Religious Action Center (IRAC), and the Conservative Movement’s Mercaz Center are inspiring organizations working for Jewish pluralism within the Jewish State.

I think one way to insulate yourself from this frustration is to recognize that universal recognition is probably not possible, at least now, and so as a prospective convert, it makes sense to convert into whichever community you want to be involved.  If you live in a smaller city in the central U.S. and there is a single synagogue anywhere near you, that is your prospective Jewish community unless you plan to move.  In effect, unless and until you move to Israel, it makes no difference what the Israeli Chief Rabbinate says about your conversion, so if your local Jewish community accepts you with open arms and it feels like home to you, go for it.  If you live in a place with a large Jewish community and many options for synagogues and types of observance within them,  it is still important to convert through whichever community you feel most comfortable.  Participating where you are happy, feel comfortable, and are accepted as a potential-Jew and eventually as a convert, makes more sense than trying to convert in a community you know does not match your interests and preferences in the hope of having wider recognition, and the Israeli conversion crisis seems to make this abundantly clear.