When MK Yulia Malinowski asked the head of the state conversion system (a civil servant in the prime minister's office, if you were wondering) on Tuesday last week whether it was possible to convert as a secular woman, his answer was unequivocal: no.
You can neither convert nor live your life as a secular Jew.
This is a statement based on condescension and patronage for anyone who wants to connect his or her life with the Jewish people.
And come on, it's not like there's hundreds of thousands knocking on our doors.
The numbers presented at the hearing should also have shocked all organizations of transparency and chastity: starting in 2014, the number of converts has dropped by half.
The rate of those who complete the conversion process has dropped from 60 percent to 24 percent.
In contrast, the budget of the conversion system has only increased in the last three years.
The surprise comes precisely from the conversion data in the Conservative and Reform streams, which are not funded by the state (except for classroom support).
These, it turns out, are on the rise.
The discussion, which took place in the Committee for National Infrastructure Initiatives and Jewish Religious Services, was supposed to provide headlines that would resonate for at least a few hours.
Apart from the usual condescension of the rabbinate over anyone who thinks differently, there were also other statements heard during the discussion, from Orthodox rabbis and ultra-Orthodox.
These remarks may herald very broad support for Minister Kahana's move to reform.
The representative of the ultra-Orthodox private conversion courts stated that the rabbinate is overly strict in that it does not allow women who work as singers to be converted. Rabbi Chaim Amsalem read in a trembling voice that the rabbinate "distorts the law" and acts with unnecessary conservatism that does not serve the Jewish people. Here, too, as in kosher, the chief rabbinate is careful to oppose with all its might the bite of its monopolistic power. But unlike kosher, here there are more voices from the hegemony that support the course. And yet, the discourse on conversion and necessary changes does not herald any real change.
Conversion, unlike many other issues, deals with the question of the future of the Jewish people and not only with its current realization. Therefore, it must be adapted to the time and place and especially - to men, women and children who want and want to go through it. The data presented in the discussion left no room for doubt: the rabbinate continues to close the front door to the Jewish people and removes - more than any other body in the Jewish world - people from Judaism, whether Jews were born or joined us by choice. This is how it is when Orthodoxy, which is the third largest current in the Jewish world (after the Conservatives and Reforms), holds unlimited power.
In Israel, there is talk of about 400,000 citizens who are "without nationality or religion." Most of them have served in the army, pay taxes and see their future here. Not to mention that they grew up in Israel as Jews for all intents and purposes, and the first time it was revealed to them that they were "not Jews according to Halacha," is probably when they came to marry in the rabbinate. The stories heard in the committee about the conversion process, the humiliations, the tedious process that in the end does not always result in the desired conversion certificate, say it all. This thing needs to be disassembled and reassembled.
Love to talk about assimilation in North America "because of the currents."
So let's put the data and facts in order, and put the feelings aside for a moment.
The rate of assimilation in European countries such as France and Germany exceeds 60 percent.
These are countries where Orthodoxy has ruled.
In contrast, the rate of assimilation in North America stands at about 45 percent.
Not to be confused, in both places it is a frightening percentage, and it is not a competition either.
We all lose.
Still, if there is a way to prevent the expansion of the phenomenon, it is the understanding that conversion must be adapted to time and place.
In this matter it is important to remember, the High Court has already done most of the way and ordered the recognition of Conservative and Reform converts both for the purpose of registration in the Ministry of the Interior and for the purpose of the Law of Return.
But that's not enough.
Minister Kahana must understand: leaving the conversion and fate of the Jewish people in the hands of Orthodoxy alone will eventually lead to the annihilation of the Jewish people.
The kosher reform - important and progressive as it may be - has left most of the Jewish people out.
In conversion - it can not happen.
Were we wrong?
Fixed!
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