This is a large-scale change in the relationship between the civil authorities and the religious establishment, sparking a fierce public debate centered on the question of who is authorized to determine who is a Jew in the State of Israel.

Currently, two separate systems exist in Israel. One is civil and managed by the Population and Immigration Authority, which includes registration of "ethnicity" and "religion." The second is halachic (Jewish law) and managed by the chief rabbinate and the rabbinical courts, which check Jewish status for marriage purposes. Until now, a clear separation was maintained between them, but the new proposal seeks to abolish it and establish that any decision by a Rabbinical Court will also be binding on the Population and Immigration Authority.

The bill, submitted by the Ministry of Religious Services and the rabbinical courts, is an official government initiative and is expected to soon reach the Knesset for deliberations and a first-reading vote. According to sources involved in shaping the proposal, its goal is to strengthen the status of the rabbinical courts and to regulate their standing in law regarding decisions related to the Jewish identity of the state's citizens.

The rabbinical courts claim this is a necessary amendment intended to prevent contradictions between state authorities and create uniformity in records. Critics of the law warn that this step could blur the line between religion and state and lead to the subordination of population registries to halachic rulings. The bill states that the director of the Jewish Status Investigations Unit or a marriage registrar will be able to initiate a Jewish status investigation on their own accord, even if the person did not request it or is not even aware of it.

This means that any person in Israel could find themselves being investigated about their Jewish status following a decision by a religious or administrative official. This is an unprecedented expansion of authority that raises concerns about violations of basic rights.

The rabbinical courts told Israel Hayom that clear rules will be established to define when such proceedings can be opened. According to the courts: "Rules will be established that will require representatives to show a concrete concern about a person's Jewish status before opening an investigation. It will not be possible to just accuse anyone. The rules will be formulated during the discussions on the law." However, these rules have not yet been included in the initial draft of the law and are expected to be determined only later within the framework of regulations.

The Itim organization was not impressed by the clarification. Attorney Ohad Weigler, director of the public policy department at the organization, said: "There are many problematic things in this. It essentially turns all of us, all citizens of Israel, into conditional Jews. So many people can come and open a Jewish status investigation process on anyone. This can lead to vengeful actions. What happens if a person doesn't want someone else to get married? A week before the wedding, they find someone authorized to open the Jewish status investigation process, and that's it, the wedding is postponed. What happens if her family gets scared and cancels the wedding? This is a dangerous situation."

Weigler added: "The bare minimum is to write in the bill, in the clause, that the regulations will specify what conditions are required to begin a Jewish status investigation process for any person, but they did not do this."

According to him, the proposal particularly harms immigrants from the former Soviet Union: "This is a huge trauma for immigrants from the Soviet Union. They came here believing they were Jews, living Jewish lives, feeling part of the people, and then they are told they are not. They enter a war to prove they are part of the people, and let's tell the truth, it's impossible to prove everything. I can't prove the Jewishness of my great-grandmother from Europe, she went through the Holocaust, they moved to Israel, there were no accurate records or records disappeared, it's impossible."

This pain is well known to Vladimir, a resident of the north, who underwent a lengthy Jewish status investigation process. He said, "The feeling is that they are looking for you, trying to show you are not Jewish, and you are fighting to show who you are. And at the end of the day, we fought for years to prove our Jewishness, we finally succeeded, and then more than a decade later, a new official arrived who didn't trust his predecessor's work, and we went through this process all over again. You feel alone, betrayed."

An additional clause in the proposal allows the court to add first-degree relatives of the person being investigated to the Jewish status investigation process. If one of the family members is declared "not Jewish," their relatives will be required to choose whether to join the process and prove their Jewishness or be registered on a "marriage-delayed" list.

This is a dramatic change compared to the current situation where such a ruling pertains only to the person themselves. Critics of the proposal claim this is a severe violation of the right to privacy and creates undue pressure on citizens to join a legal process with heavy personal consequences.

While the rabbinical courts see this move as a necessary correction that provides legal and religious certainty, civil organizations are warning of a serious violation of individual rights and public trust in state institutions.

For many immigrants and children of immigrants, the law brings up old fears and revives painful memories of constant scrutiny of their Jewish identity. The sense of trust built over years could be damaged if the state grants a religious body the authority to check the identity of citizens who never requested it at all.

If approved, the bill will grant the rabbinical courts unprecedented powers and will change the way the State of Israel defines who is a Jew and the way Jews define themselves.

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The Civil Service Commission recently conducted an investigation against officials in the Chief Rabbinate for allegedly improperly adding foreign rabbinical courts to the list of recognized conversion bodies, putting the status of the converts in doubt.

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The Investigations Department of the Civil Service Commission investigated senior rabbinate officials on suspicion that they acted in their official capacity to benefit an associate of a member of the Chief Rabbinate Council. 

The suspicion is that a private rabbinical court abroad belonging to that associate was added to the list of recognized conversion courts illegally. Additionally, it was investigated whether the director general of the rabbinate defied the legal counsel of the Chief Rabbinate after it instructed that this court be removed from the list.

A senior prosecutor from the High Court of Justice Department in the State Attorney's Office testified in the commission's investigation, saying: "Political elements exerted pressure and tried to take advantage of me." 

It is unclear what will become of those who converted in those courts since the State of Israel effectively recognized their conversions before suspicions were raised that they were potentially acting without proper vetting. The affair was exposed following monitoring by the ITIM organization, which filed a petition to the High Court on the matter.

The State of Israel recognizes conversions performed by rabbinical courts abroad only if the court was approved by a committee in the Chief Rabbinate of Israel and meets extremely stringent measures. Converts turn to the state after converting abroad if they wish to immigrate to Israel under the Law of Return, or if they want the state to recognize their marriages.

Generally, converts prefer to turn to a court recognized by the State of Israel, and state recognition of rabbinical courts is considered a prestigious status symbol in Jewish communities abroad. State recognition also has financial implications for the court, which operates as a private business.

In 2021, the former Minister for Religious Services, Matan Kahana, appointed the Chief Rabbinate's legal advisor as acting director general, leaving the legal advisor position vacant. The legal advisor serves as the "gatekeeper" at the rabbinate, including on the committee responsible for recognizing rabbinical courts abroad.

Civil Service Commission said the following in a statement: "An investigation file was opened against the director general of the Chief Rabbinate of Israel, during which the Disciplinary Investigations Department conducted many investigative actions. This included taking testimony from relevant parties and questioning suspects in the case, including the director general. As is customary, at the end of the investigation, the case was transferred to for review."

The Chief Rabbinate of Israel said the following in a statement: "The actions of the Rabbinical Courts recognition committee were carried out lawfully and met all required standards. The petition filed lacks any factual basis, and its hollowness speaks for itself. The Sephardi Chief rabbi (Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef) is not a member of the committee, and has no special connection to the approved courts, except for a general acquaintance by virtue of his position."

Unlike the commission's response, the rabbinate stated that "The director general was not investigated, but rather summoned to testify."

Atty. Ela Sakat, Head of Itim's Legal Department: "It is frustrating and infuriating to see how the Chief Rabbinate exploits the power and authority granted to it by the State of Israel in order to provide benefits to associates, without having to meet any of the rules that the Rabbinate itself established. It seems rules only need to apply to those who are not close to the trough.

"It is not enough for the Rabbinate to conduct itself this way within the country's borders, but they are also working to export the same conduct to Jewish communities abroad and the rabbinical courts located there. The recently filed High Court petition seeks to put an end to this."

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"I'm still a little weak. A few days ago I got over COVID," Chief Rabbi David Lau apologizes at the beginning of a conversation with Israel Hayom.

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A few hundreds meters from the bustling Jerusalem Central Bus Station, the hallways of the Chief Rabbinate offices are emptier than ever. Rooms are almost vacant, and so are elevators. Most of the employees are working from home, as even Lau was forced to do when he tested positive.

"A few staff members, including my driver, tested positive. My 13-year-old daughter came home from school on Thursday, and on Friday, she did a test and turned out to be positive. The same with my wife and another daughter. During one long Shabbat we were sitting on opposite sides of the living room to try and avoid transmitting it, and on Saturday night, after I got a cold, I went to get tested and it turned out I was positive, too. I informed my people and went into quarantine for a week," Lau says.

Lau says that despite feeling very tired, one of the mornings he was at home he and a colleague spent five hours working on a rabbinic ruling. Also, despite his illness and the inclement weather, he was careful to pray three times a day, thanks to the residents in his Modi'in apartment building, who set up an outdoor minyan, which he joined from his balcony.

Lau, 56, took over as chief rabbi in 2013 and is due to complete his 10-year term a year and a half from now. In accordance with the law, he spent the first five years as president of the Chief Rabbinate Council and chief posek on matters of kashruth and marriage, while his counterpart, Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef, served as president of the Great Rabbinical Court. After five years, they switched roles, and Lau, as court president, has been dealing with some of the toughest cases in Israel – men who refuse to grant their wives a Jewish writ of divorce, women who because they are refused a writ or because of other circumstances cannot remarry, the status of children deemed bastards under Jewish law, and conversion.

Approximately three weeks ago, Lau made headlines after he paid a condolence visit to the family of Haredi writer Chaim Walder, who committed suicide after 22 testimonies accusing him of various sexual crimes were made public. Days after his suicide and the fact that hundreds of mourners attended his funeral, including public figures, as well as the Haredi media reporting his demise without addressing the charges against him, a young women who had grown up in Haredi circles also killed herself. Her friends said she was one of Walder's victims, who had been unable to cope with the events.

A day after Walder's funeral, Lau visited his family to comfort his widow and children, drawing condemnations. 

Five days after the visit, Lau published a letter in which he wrote, "It appears that there is a need to clarify things. Unfortunately, there were some who interpreted the fact that I went to comfort people in mourning – a widow and children I know personally – as if I do not, heaven forbid, empathize with the victims.

"Therefore, it is important to me to make it clear: even now, my heart goes out to the victims, who are experiencing a very difficult time, and we must all stand by their side always, especially now. I fully believe anyone who was hurt. I deeply regret to say that offenses like these exist at many levels of society, and the victims' screams that their souls have been murdered haunts us.

"No harassment or attack must be ignored. Acts like these must be rooted out everywhere, as I have often called to do. In any case in which there is suspicion of harassment or abuse, there is an obligation to file a complaint with the authorities, and not hide it, and those have been my instructions in cases of people who reached out to me. I've said these things at many conferences, and I'll repeat them at every opportunity, in the hope we will never again hear of such terrible things," Lau said.

Lau says that he has worked to address sexual offenses in Haredi society for many years. "Fifteen years ago, when I was serving as the Modi'in city rabbi, I sat with the rabbi of the Central District of the Israel Police and asked him to raise awareness of the issue. When I became chief rabbi, my wife organized a conference of rabbis' wives and made them aware of it.

"In addition, when I became president of the rabbinical court, I reached out to the female attendants at mikvehs and asked them to be more aware of sexual assault," he says.

Q: Do you think that's enough?

"I think there is a need to address the matter, and be aware of people's distress. Clearly, we need to do as much as we can and not ignore assaults, including taking them to the proper police authorities. We need to be aware that incidents like these can happen anywhere, and do everything we can to save lives. Every attack is terrible, and wrecks lives."

In the past month and a half, Lau has been on a collision course with Religious Affairs Minister Matan Kahana over reforms to conversion Kahana is trying to promote. The two aren't meeting, and contact has been cut off.

Kahana's proposed reforms, first published by Israel Hayom, would allow city rabbis to run conversion courts, thereby increasing the number of conversions in Israel, which currently stands at some 1,500 per year. Today, 400,000 citizens in Israel are defined as having no religion, most of them immigrants from the former Soviet Union. Kahana hopes that more will convert through local conversion courts, rather than the system operated by the Chief Rabbinate.

Lau did not hold fire when the report came out and made it clear he saw it as nothing less than a "spiritual disaster" and Jewish law being tossed out. He called it a "serious attack on Israel's Jewishness" and said "We will fight with all our power against this dangerous initiative."

According to various reports, he may even have informed Prime Minister Naftali Bennett that if head of conversion apparatus in the Chief Rabbinate, Rabbi Moshe Weller, were dismissed, Lau would not sign off on conversion certificates for immigrants from Ethiopia. However, speaking to Israel Hayom, Lau denies these reports, calling them lies.

"I sign off on every conversion, and the head of conversion services, whose role is to ensure that conversions are handled in accordance with my instructions, answers to me. The moment Rabbi Weller was fired, I had no way of knowing what instructions were being followed in conversions, so I announced I wouldn't sign off on any conversion – regardless of the identity of the convert or his country of origin," Lau explains.

The week before last, hours after Kahana unveiled the final details of his draft conversion reform bill, Lau took the unusual step of announcing that he would go over the head of the chief of conversion services and approve each conversion himself. Kahana told him that would be illegal.

"Illegal?" Lau grins. "According to the rules of conversion, the head of the conversion system is responsible for implementing the instructions of the president of the Great Rabbinical Court, which is me. I don't understand what's illegal about my checking each and every case. That's my obligation," he says.

"The bill being discussed is an attempt to rip apart the Jewish people. It will lead to two kinds of conversion, and we'll be forced to tell people who haven't converted properly that they aren't Jews. Minyans at synagogues will have to check who converted in accordance with Jewish law and who is just a convert on paper. It will lead to chaos, and we mustn't lend our hand to that," he warns.

Lau says he does not intend to sign off on anything in which he does not believe, "and if I don't believe a conversion is genuine, I won't sign, full stop."

"The citizens of the country are entitled to their full rights, but we need to distinguish between citizenship and Judaism. Judaism hasn't changed since Mount Sinai, and won't. There is one form of conversion in Israel – and that is through the Chief Rabbinate. The Rabbinate is a beacon for the entire Jewish world, and everyone knows that our conversion certificate is the final word. The new law will trample that," he says.

Q: For years, there have been complaints about the conversion court, that it makes things difficult for converts. Why not change the situation?

"The conversion court judges have been greatly wronged. So much is said about them, and people don't know whom or what they're talking about. There are about 30 judges, mostly officers in the IDF reserves, who are involved in the Israeli experience no less than those who think so much of themselves and attack them. They are brilliant scholars who do their work devotedly, don't reject anyone, and provide a true answer for those who come to the court. The problem isn't the conversion system, it's the fact that every year more and more people arrive who aren't Jewish.

"If someone is pained over assimilation, they should use that same passion and power to change the Law of Return. According to statistics from the Interior Ministry, the vast majority of immigrants to Israel aren't Jewish, so why bring them and then say there's a problem? Stop it beforehand, as much as it might hurt. Why change a law that is entirely aligned with Jewish law, rather than preventing the problem in the first place?"

In a press conference, Kahana addressed the issue and argued that the Law of Return was indeed problematic, because of its provision that allows grandchildren of Jews to make aliyah. Ironically, when this amendment to the original law was passed in 1970, MKs from the National Religious Party agreed to allow grandchildren of Jews to make aliyah because they assumed only a few would want to live in Israel based on their grandfather or grandmother having been Jewish. Kahana said that the current political "constellation" would not allow the law to be altered.

Q: Supporters of the reforms say that private courts have already been operating for years and prove that things can be done differently, in a more welcoming manner.

"There are serious problems with the private courts. If a person who lives in Australia comes to Israel for a week and gets a conversion certificate from a private court, it's a disgrace, an attack on the entire concept of conversion and Judaism. The rabbinical court won't recognize them, don't know where they come from or what brought them to convert.

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Lau says that there have been rabbis who have tried "speed conversions," making brief trips abroad to conduct conversions. "I announced that these conversions were not eligible. Do you understand how destructive it is to a community? A person is walking around with a conversion certificate from three city rabbis in Israel. The moment these conversions carry the symbol of the Chief Rabbinate, it will destroy communities worldwide and also our communities."

Q: Don't you trust the city rabbis? Some of them are members of the Chief Rabbinate.

"The problem isn't whether I trust city rabbis, but the fact that there will be a few types of conversion … It will ruin the entire system of conversion. Look at what's happening here. When MK Michael Michaeli (chairman of the Shas faction) stood up in the Knesset and said that city rabbis weren't authorized to oversee conversions, head of the Knesset Religious Services Committee, MK Yulia Malinovsky (Yisrael Beytenu) responded, 'Teach them' I don't understand that flippancy. Would she bring people from the street into a hospital and say 'Teach them how to treat patients'?"

"I need help from city rabbis in conversion, but not in the court. I'm doing fine, there are wonderful judges. If people care so much about assimilation, they can help us mentor converts after they convert.

"I was the first chief rabbi who went to Kfar Etzion to meet with IDF soldiers in the Netiv course, where they undergo conversion. One soldier told me how hard it was for her, having converted but not wanting to be at home on Shabbat. They desecrate Shabbat there, and none of the city rabbis invites them for Shabbat dinner.

"I'd expect the city rabbis to mentor them after conversion. According to Jewish law, a convert should follow religious commandments, but actually, many don't. If you want to be involved so badly, help them keep the commandments and remain part of Judaism, properly."

Q: You can't ignore the fact that in Israel there are almost half a million people with non-Jewish status. What if your grandson brings home an Israeli girlfriend and then it turns out she's not Jewish?

"I hope that won't happen. I try to bring up my children and grandchildren about the importance of tradition being passed from generation to generation. But the solution is not to hand out conversion certificates indiscriminately.

"There's no doubt these are difficult times. Recently, I was at the science high school in Haifa and I explained that we are one link in a chain of generations, and the importance of tradition. At the end, a young woman came up to me and pointed to a classmate of hers and said he was Druze and asked why he was bad. She said there were [Muslim] singers and models who married Jews.

"I explained there was nothing 'bad' about it, but there was still a need to preserve tradition. That we are here so there will be a Jewish state.

"If, heaven forbid, the law is passed, I fear that we'll need family trees to know who is Jewish. Don't tell me that doesn't already exist – people from different ethnic groups marry with no problem. I hope we won't find ourselves in situations that will put us back in exile."

Q: Is it possible that both you and Kahana are throwing the baby out with the bathwater? Perhaps cooperation is the way to improve the system of conversion?

"With all due respect, even if the Knesset decides that someone with a fever of 43 degrees (109F) is healthy, that's wrong, and if it passes a law that you don't need mortar to build a building, it won't happen. The same goes for conversion: The Knesset won't decide who is Jewish. A Jew is a person who accepts the commandments and joins the Jewish people.

"When a child is born in the US, he is American. But if a person not born in the US wants to become a citizen, they need to overcome a lot of obstacles. Someone born on a kibbutz is automatically a kibbutznik, but someone who wants to move to a kibbutz has to be checked and meet various criteria.

"The Jewish people is nothing less than the American nation or a kibbutz. Throughout the generations, there has a been a path and a line that has to stay uniform. These are questions of Jewish law, and there is one address: the Chief Rabbinate. In my life, I've never heard that the solution to assimilation is to hand out conversion certificates. Should we give everyone driver's licenses without knowing if he can drive or without the appropriate conditions?"

Q: Finance Minister Avigdor Lieberman claimed that you're trying to extort the government and has called on looking into your staying on as president of the high rabbinc court.

"He doesn't bother me. A politician makes his political remarks, and I do what I have been charged. I hope that tomorrow he won't ask to look into the head of surgery at Hadassah Ein Karem because he thinks he might not be doing his job well."

Lau points out that there is an enormous difference in the Chief Rabbinate's status for most of the people and its status for certain sectors. He says that in his travels, he sees how strong the rabbinate's position is, and how interested people are in its decisions. According to Lau, the rabbinate's position on the front line of the battle to "keep Israel Jewish" makes it a target.

"After decades of debate about whether this is a Jewish state, the voices calling for a state of all its citizens have the advantage. Because the Chief Rabbinate symbolizes the opposite of that, it draws fire from all sides," he says.

"I'm an optimistic person by nature, and believe that in the end, we'll be able to protect Judaism," Lau says.

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Chief Rabbi David Lau has sent a harshly-worked letter to Prime Minister Naftali Bennett protesting plans to promote a reformed system of conversion to Judaism in Israel and remove Rabbi Moshe Weller as head of the Conversion Authority in the Prime Minister's Office.

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In the letter, Lau writes, "The role of the head of Conversion Authority is to implement the halachacic instructions of the president of the Great Rabbinical Court. And the head of the Conversion Authority has an obligation to ensure that the halachic instructions are followed."

The reforms to Israel's conversion system, initiated by Religious Services Minister Matan Kahana, would among other things allow city rabbis to operate conversion courts in the hope of helping tens if not hundreds of thousands of Israeli citizens of Jewish heritage who are not recognized as Jewish to convert. The conversion reform bill is due to be presented to the Knesset plenum for a first reading on Wednesday.

In his letter to Bennett, Lau also writes, "Removing from office the person who is in charge of implementing halachic instructions cuts off the connection between the conversion system and the Chief Rabbinate, and will lead to a disconnection and lack of halachic responsibility for what happens during conversions."

In addition, Lau warns, "Unfortunately, this step is part of a dangerous trend to promote a system of conversion that is currently being discussed. I once again state that the proposed conversion reforms will cause a massive rift in the Jewish people that cannot be healed."

According to Lau, "If the conversion reforms are implemented, it will split the Jewish people, who in the future will have to grapple with the question 'Who is Jewish?', whom they can marry or – heaven forbid – not marry, a terrible situation of two states for two peoples, a split Judaism rather than a united one."

Lau concludes by informing Bennett "with great regret" that if the reforms are passed and Weller is removed as head of the Conversion Authority, "I will be forced to remove myself from any responsibility for conversions, and will immediately stop approving any conversion certificates issued under [the new system]."

Responding to Lau's letter, Kahana said, "It's painful to see that the chief rabbi intends to stop conversion in Israel just because a functionary's job has not been extended. The move will hurt new immigrants from Ethiopia, IDF soldiers seeing to convert, and thousands of other potential converts."

Kahana said that in an attempt to reach as broad a consensus as possible, the government was promoting a conversion reform bill that would allow Israelis to want to convert to do so in accordance with Jewish law.

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Kahana urged Lau to reconsider his intention of stopping conversions and continue the dialogue, so all sides concerned could reach better agreements about government-run conversion that follows Jewish law.

Associates of Kahana accused Lau of going "out of bounds."

"Stopping all conversions is the 'nuclear option,' and the strongest tool against converts. It's an immoral, unjustified act," they said

Associates of Aliyah and Integration Minister Pnina Tamano-Shata said that she would "not allow the rights of immigrants to be violated."

Later Tuesday, people close to Lau said that claims he intended to stop all conversions were "a complete lie."

A statement put out in the chief rabbi's name said: "The chief rabbi is defined by law as head of the Jewish people and signs off on every conversion to the Jewish religion. As part of this, the rabbi has the head of the Conversion Authority, whom he appoints to ensure that conversions take place in accordance with the rules of Jewish law.

"The moment that person is dismissed and the rabbi has no way of knowing according to what rules conversions were carried out, the chief rabbi will by no means sign off on any conversion, regardless of the identity of the convert and what country they come from, without knowing with certainty that it was conducted according to Jewish law, as detailed in the rabbi's letter to the prime minister," the statement read.

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Let's begin with the numbers: there are fewer non-Jewish children born in Israel each year than there are non-Jews who convert to Judaism. The government puts immense resources into attempts to convert close to half a million Israelis originally from the former Soviet Union who are not Jewish according to Jewish law (halacha), but in the past few decades, only about 35,000 immigrants from these countries have actually gone through the conversion process, a study by Dr. Netanel Fisher, head of the School of Public Administration, Governance, and Law at the Academic Center for Law and Science and an expert on conversion. 

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But Israel might be facing a major change. The new conversion guidelines proposed by the Religious Services Ministry would allow city rabbis – for the first time in years – to set up conversion courts. The openly-announced goal of the reforms is to make a process considered severe and unaccepting easier for thousands, if not more, of potential converts. 

A recent study conducted by the organization 1 Million Lobby, which advocates for immigrants from the FSU, and the Jerusalem Institute for Policy Research revealed that approximately 45% of respondents who are not considered Jews according to Jewish law said they would be willing to convert or consider doing so under the Orthodox-governmental system if changes were made to it. Religious Affairs Minister Matan Kahana has already made it clear that conversion will adhere to halacha and will require converts to adhere to the commandments, which could deter some potential converts who would like to be Jews, but not keep the Sabbath or send their children to religious schools. 

Throughout the years, there have been made attempts to encourage conversion in Israel. Back in the 1970s, a national conversion system was established by then-Chief Rabbi Shlomo Goren, and city rabbis were allowed to operate their own conversion courts. In the 1990s, after it turned out that due to lack of oversight, each city rabbi could do as he saw fit, then-Chief Rabbi Eliyahu Bakshi Doron decided to stop these local conversions and leave the matter in the hands of the national authorities, where it remains today. 

But the early 1990s also brought a massive wave of over 1 million arrivals from the former Soviet Union, which led to a problematic situation – hundreds of thousands of new immigrants of Jewish descent, who had Jewish roots but were not considered Jews according to the halachic definition, were making aliyah. This caused many to worry about increased intermarriage and assimilation. They say that the current situation proves their concerns at the time were valid: there are nearly 100,000 mixed couples in Israel, and we can assume that there are many more who are not married but live together as common-law couples. 

The stringent process puts converts off 

Data Fisher has spent years collecting from the national conversion authorities and the Central Bureau of Statistics indicate that when it comes to Israel's attempts to solve the conversion issue, things are complicated. Since the 1990s, about 100,000 people have converted, thus making Israel into a conversion powerhouse. Nearly half of these converts are immigrants from Ethiopia, and some 15% are from various countries who converted for personal reasons. Only 35% are immigrants from the FSU and their children. This means that while there are about half a million Israelis who are not halachically Jewish, only a small percentage of them convert. About 80% of converts are women, which Fisher says stems mainly form the fact that a child's Jewish status is determined by the mother's. 

Every year, some 2,000 people from families who made aliyah from the FSU convert, and about 500 of them are native-born Israelis. In addition, the IDF's Nativ course oversees conversion for 600-800 soldiers annually who made aliyah from the FSU. In the last two years, as COVID cast its shadow over everything, the number of Israelis who converted to Judaism through the national authorities dropped significantly. And as the government dithered, 2020 saw 4,990 babies born (not including Arab Israelis) who are not considered Jewish according to halacha, and only 1,900 converts (excluding converts from Ethiopia).  

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"We're seeing a very worrying phenomenon of a drop in the numbers of converts," Fisher says. "The reason appears to be not only COVID, but also that people are getting used to living in Israel without converting. The fact that thousands of people convert each year is not to be taken for granted, but it creates an astonishing dissonance. On one hand, the Rabbinate is operating well and converting tens of thousands of people, while also taking a beating from the more conservative side, which claims that the rabbinical court judges are too easy. 

"On the other hand, we are far from reaching the potential. In the past 20 years, one out of every four immigrants took a conversion class – more than 100,000 people who started the process. But only 35,000 finished it. True, there are a lot of reasons why many didn't finish it, but there's no doubt that the process itself and the demands it entails put some people off," Fisher says. 

Local conversion 

Although there is a unified national system of conversion in Israel, rabbinical courts at the district level act differently. Some take a more lenient approach, while some make things difficult for converts. In some of these courts, about 80% of the converts pass the tests the first time and become Jews, while in others, less than half pass, which makes the conversion process – which demands mental strength as well as physical commitment – much harder. This difference is rooted in different approaches to Jewish law, but effectively means that someone who lives in a city where the presiding rabbinical judge in charge of conversion is more conservative has a significantly lower chance of converting. 

"A person's success or failure to convert cannot dictate what a person's ID card says," Fisher points out. 

The new conversion framework proves that Kahana understands that there is a need to establish easier alternatives – that are still within the scope of halacha, but will be acceptable to the Haredim, even if they grimace. In 2018 former minister Moshe Nissim proposed a framework for conversion that included the establishment of a completely new system, separate from the Chief Rabbinate. This proposal was attacked by MKs from the Haredi parties and the country's chief rabbis, and was shelved. 

In contrast, the current proposal was put together in cooperated with well-known religious Zionist rabbis, including the prominent Rabbi Chaim Druckman, which did not neutralize Haredi criticism entirely, might blunt it in future, making the new option the lesser evil. 

One of the urgent issues on the table that still hasn't been discussed is whether or not the future committee will allow city rabbis to oversee conversion of children. This is a solution that would allow for fast-tracked conversion of young children and check the rise in the number of non-Jewish Israelis living here. 

Has the government missed the boat when it comes to mass conversion and preventing assimilation? The fact that lately, the number of mixed couples has increased while the number of converts drops shows that the new immigrants and their children – who are Israelis in every point – aren't in a hurry to convert. Because the country was and is demanding that converts observe the religious commandments upon becoming Jews, it's not sure whether a friendlier approach will do the job and bring the masses to the rabbinical courts. 

The post Is the conversion revolution too little, too late?  appeared first on www.israelhayom.com.

In a surprising move, a leading Hassidic rabbi spoke out in favor of Religious Services Minister Matan Kahana's kashrut reform Saturday, despite opposition by most in the ultra-Orthodox world to the change. The reform seeks to abolish the kashrut monopoly that has been held by the Chief Rabbinate since the establishment of the state.

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"For 70 years, the Haredim have opposed the Chief Rabbinate, and now all of a sudden they support it?" Rabbi Menachem Eliezer Zev Rosenbaum, head of the Kretshnif Hassidic dynasty, was quoted to have told congregants on Saturday.

"For 70 years we have been told that the Rabbinate is unfit and seeks to compromise the Jewish character of the state, and lo and behold, now they [the ultra-Orthodox] are fighting on its behalf."

Rosenbaum also hinted that opposition to the reform by Haredi Knesset members, in particular, stemmed from hypocrisy on their part.

"Who knows, perhaps due to this reform, Jews that have until now not kept kosher will start eating kosher food specifically because of this 'reform of rabbis,'" he said.

In contrast, Sephardi Chief Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef lambasted the reform, claiming that some elements were looking to get rid of kashrut altogether.

"They want to take kashrut and destroy it all," he told listeners at his weekly lesson on Saturday evening.
He claimed that the reform requiring the mashgiach (kashrut supervisor) to only arrive at the site he supervises once a week was insufficient.

"At the time when the mashgiach is not present, they will bring in non-kosher meat and the likes," he said.

Yosef also pointed out that while the ultra-Orthodox will continue to rely on kashrut certifications granted by the higher rabbinical court – which is not part of the Chief Rabbinate – the reform will predominantly affect those Israelis who keep kosher but accept certificates of all kinds.

"We will fight this matter," he said and lambasted Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi David Lau for failing to battle the reform as well due to a desire to continue to serve on the Supreme Rabbinical Court.

Yosef said that the only way he would be willing to hold talks with Kahana was if the reform was taken off the Arrangements Law, which is a bill presented to the Knesset each year alongside the State Budget Law that incorporates various economic and financial legislation amendments needed for the government to fulfill its economic policy.

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The post All is fair in war on kashrut reform? appeared first on www.israelhayom.com.

The Tzohar rabbinical organization has broken its silence and taken a public stance against the Chief Rabbinate and in favor of reforms to Israel's system of kashrut certification.

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In a position paper obtained by Israel Hayom, Tzohar points out a series of problems with how food vendors currently obtain kashrut certificates.

The reform proposed by Religious Services Minister Matan Kahana would form associations that would provide kashrut supervision for businesses, as opposed to the current supervisors, who work for local religious councils and therefore for the Chief Rabbinate.

If Kahana's reform is enacted, the Tzohar kashrut supervision, which is currently in use but forbidden to feature the word "kosher," will be able to supply its services to thousands of businesses.

Haredi MKs have claimed that Tzohar is actually behind the proposed reform.

"The system of kosher certification in its current form has problems that harm government kashrut certification in Israel," the Tzohar paper claims. The paper goes on to note the state comptroller's findings about the problems with the national system, and states that "the reform will save government-provided kosher certification, and allow those who keep kosher to feel more confident about the food they consume."

One of the problems with the current state of kosher certification Tzohar cited was the lack of oversight of the supervisors themselves: "In many of the larger cities, there is no rabbi who has the job, or any rabbinical oversight. The current state of the kashrut system creates a situation in which each local rabbinate sets its own demands and the practices of supervision. This reality does not allow businesses and customers transparency and a clear understanding of the standard of kashrut."

The Tzohar paper went on to note that businesses paid the salaries of kashrut supervisors, which Tzohar says violates Jewish law. In addition, the organization claims that "As the years have passed, the current system of kosher supervision has created a sense of loathing, distance, and lack of trust among the public. Many businesses are forgoing kosher certification, or reaching out to non-halachic groups to replace the rabbinate."

"The root of the problem lies with the structure of kosher certification in Israel, which operates as local monopolies: every city or council rabbi has the exclusive authority to confer kosher status in his jurisdiction, according to standards and practices that he has decided on, with nearly no external oversight," Tzohar claims.

"The monopolies create a lack of unity it terms of Jewish law, a lack of unity in pricing, corruption, nepotism, and a lack of control over the national system that is wrongs business owners. The reform is a golden opportunity to restore the public's faith and build support in the world of kashrut and tradition, while strengthening the Chief Rabbinate," Tzohar wrote.

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