c. 1997 Religion News Service

JERUSALEM _ Conservative and Reform Jewish groups said Monday (Oct. 27) they will resume their long-delayed court battle for recognition here following failed attempts to negotiate a compromise with state-supported Orthodox rabbis.

The non-Orthodox leaders are demanding state recognition for conversions to Judaism performed by their rabbis in Israel, as well as the right to sit on municipal religious councils that oversee religious affairs.

The deeper issue at stake is whether liberal Jewish streams can gain recognition in Israel _ where religious institutions are state supported and Orthodox groups have enjoyed a virtual monopoly over religious life and public funds for the past 50 years _ and what damage to the important support for Israel U.S. Jews provide will result if they fail to gain the recognition they seek.

A visiting delegation of American Conservative and Reform rabbis, on a two-day mission here to find a compromise in the controversy, said Monday they were leaving Israel empty-handed because Israel’s chief rabbis refused to negotiate with them directly.

The U.S. delegation asked Israeli lawmakers to reject Orthodox demands to enact pending legislation to formalize Orthodoxy’s de facto control over conversions to Judaism and bar non-Orthodox Jews from joining municipal religious councils.”World Jews don’t understand all of the nuances. But what they do understand is that (with passage of the laws) there will be two kinds of Jews, Orthodox and everyone else,”Rabbi Ammiel Hirsch, who heads the Association of Reform Zionists in America, said at a press conference.”If you send a message to American synagogues that their rabbis are second rate, that they are second rate, then you destroy the unique identification of diaspora Jews with the state of Israel,”he added.

In the United States, Conservative and Reform Judaism account for about 90 percent of all Jews affiliated with a synagogue. In Israel, however, very few Jews belong to the two movements and Orthodoxy is the dominate, although the majority of Israeli Jews do not adhere to its vigorous requirements.

Despite their lack of political power in Israel, the non-Orthodox Jewish leaders say their movements deserve recognition as a matter of religious freedom.”Is this going to be a state run by a beknighted, anachronistic, kind of Judaism? Will the winds of pluralism and the winds of democracy stop at the shores of Israel?”asked Rabbi Richard Hirsch, executive director of the World Union for Progressive Judaism, an international Reform body.”We can’t build a monopoly, side by side with a democracy.” (BEGIN OPTIONAL TRIM)

Israel’s government became bogged down in a political crisis over the conversion issue earlier this month after a compromise proposal developed by a government-appointed committee was vetoed by the Orthodox chief rabbis, state-appointed officials who command the final say on Jewish religious issues here.

The compromise had been billed as an historic attempt to find accommodation between Jews of the three religious streams.

According to the proposal, drafted by Finance Minister Ya’acov Ne’eman, who is Orthodox, Conservative and Reform rabbis were to have been permitted to help educate potential converts to Judaism although Orthodox rabbis would have continued to actually perform the conversion ritual.”It was a superb compromise for everybody, particularly the Orthodox in that it allowed them to continue to exert control,”said Orthodox Rabbi David Rosen, head of the Israel office of the New York-based Anti-Defamation League.

But the compromise fell through last week when Orthodox Sephardic Chief Rabbi Eliahu Bakshi-Doron rejected any cooperation with non-Orthodox rabbis,”because they represent only themselves, and many of them don’t even believe in God.” (END OPTIONAL TRIM)

The Orthodox say the liberal Jewish movements are destroying the faith by watering down tradition.

The delegation of American Conservative and Reform Jews said they had made a final attempt over the past two days to open up a dialogue with Bakshi-Doron and his counterpart, Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi Yisrael Lau, but the effort had failed.”We announced with a heavy heart that we can no longer delay the judicial procedures now in the court. We’re ready for far-reaching compromises. But we need to know that the (Orthodox) chief rabbis are willing to sit with us and so far we haven’t received that assurance,”said Reform Rabbi Uri Regev.

Israel’s Orthodox political parties immediately demanded the government pass legislation to block the Conservative and Reform attempts to gain legal recognition.

The Orthodox parties, which constitute one-third of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s parliamentary coalition, gave him an ultimatum: get the legislation passed or risk losing their support _ a move that could result in the dissolution of his government and new general elections.

A bill barring non-Orthodox Jewish representatives from sitting on Israeli municipal religious councils is slated to be heard in the Knesset (parliament) Tuesday (Oct. 28), followed by hearings next week on the bill that would bar state recognition of non-Orthodox converts to Judaism.

Meanwhile, Israeli courts are due to hear an appeal by Conservative and Reform Jews demanding places on the religious councils, while the conversion issue is due to come to the courts next month.

Cracks in Netanyahu’s religious-right wing coalition appeared recently when members of several small, centrist parties announced they won’t back the bills enshrining Orthodox powers in matters of conversions and religious council representation.”I will vote against the (conversion) bill and I know there are others who will vote like me. It’s a matter of conscience,”said Ronald Bronfman, a parliament member representing the Israel and Aliyah Party, which is made up of Soviet immigrants to Israel, many of whom are not recognized as Jewish by Orthodox rabbis.

Some Orthodox politicians charged the non-Orthodox leaders were attempting to topple Netanyahu’s fragile political coalition.”Left-wing factors are a party to this move to topple the government,”said Aryeh Deri, leader of the Orthodox Shas Party, which is comprised of Jews from Middle Eastern nations.

Other Orthodox members of Netanyahu’s government, who had worked for months to find a compromise between the different Jewish streams, said the U.S. Jewish delegation had prematurely closed the door to further dialogue.”They are making a historic mistake,”said Alex Lubotsky, an Orthodox parliament member who helped found the government committee studying the conversion issue.”We just needed more time.”

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