A bill by MK Uriel Bosso (Shas) to grant an absorption basket to converts will go up today (Wednesday) in the Knesset plenum for a first reading vote.
The proposal comes alongside a similar proposal submitted by MK Menachem Porush (Torah Judaism).
This is a bill that was submitted in response to a bill by the Minister of Environmental Protection, Tamar Zandberg (Meretz), which seeks to provide the circulars in question with an absorption basket similar to that received by a new immigrant.
Bosso suggests that an absorption basket be given to every person who repents.
Under the new bill, converts were defined as people who leave secular society and move on to life in religious or ultra-Orthodox society.
"The age of most people who repent is very diverse and wide-ranging, from young people to adults, single people to family members, most of them men but also women and entire families on their toes."
Uriel Bosso, Photo: Photo: Danny Shem Tov
"In the Jewish state where Torah study is a top value even according to the guidelines of Lapid Bennett in 2013, then if you want to give an absorption basket to those who return in question, you have to give a double basket to those who repent," the explanatory memorandum to the new bill reads.
"Support for converts is not institutionalized at all, and is done on a private basis (for example, repentance organizations and 'approximation' - dialogue, values, etc.) and without any support from the state. In addition, there is no definition in the law, regulations or procedures for repentance. "It is difficult to gather accurate data on the extent of the phenomenon. Repentance organizations handle hundreds and thousands of cases of converts each year. However, there are many more converts who go through the process alone or through alternative support frameworks," the statement said.
The Knesset member explained in the bill that the converts encounter many difficulties due to the need to adapt to very different norms and frameworks from those in which they grew up, along with difficulty in forming new relationships.
"They are actually going through a process of 'internal migration.' This process is, to a large extent, similar to the process that new immigrants go through, and in some ways even more difficult than that."
It is therefore proposed that the converts should also be entitled to an absorption basket similar to the eligibility of the new immigrants "which will allow them to acclimatize immediately".
