Mairav Zonszein in Ynet has an interesting take on the conversion bill in the Knesset that has so upset American Jews:
American Jews’ demand that Israel uphold freedom of religion – something that would necessarily require it to recognize non-Orthodox conversions – is certainly understandable, but the reasoning nonetheless misses the point. Israel has structured its legal system in such a way that parties in government have the right to determine not only who it will let through its borders, but also what kind of Jews it will recognize.
Writing in The Times about the conversion bill, Alana Newhouse stated that it has been a mistake for American Jews to stand idly by for so long on this matter because “it has been interpreted by Israeli politicians as a green light to throw basic questions of Jewish identity into the pot of coalition politics.”
What she missed is that Israel has been operating precisely on the notion that Jewish identity is a matter of coalition politics. This is evident from the country’s perpetual limbo between allowing Orthodox elements to determine civilian laws (and thus edging towards theocracy) and guaranteeing freedom of religion and equal rights, as any credible democracy must do.
American Jews may fear that an explicit call for separation of religion and state in Israel would threaten to undermine the state’s “Jewish character” and the privileges it bestows to Jews in Israel and to Diaspora Jewry, through the Law of Return. This is the same fear that prompts Israel to keep the definition of its “Jewish” character murky. Indeed, it is not clear what it means for Israel to simultaneously separate religion and state and remain a “Jewish” state.
However, if American Jews want to get involved on this issue, it is not enough to rally criticism against single-issue laws like the conversion bill. Rather, they must go to the heart of the matter: It is not about insisting that Judaism must be pluralistic, but about the prerogative of a state apparatus to legislate such matters in the first place.
The conversion bill is therefore just one in a long line of examples that expose a fundamentally flawed system in which the State of Israel has yet to decide if and how to be both Jewish and democratic. Sixty-two years into Israel’s existence, this is still the most important question the country faces.
