Halpern: Conversion bill is a moot point

Before the Knesset closed its doors for the summer, the Israeli parliament's Constitution, Law and Justice Committee approved the first draft of a Conversion Bill. "Achrei HaChagim," after the High Holidays, when Israel and Israelis resume their regular routines, the bill will return to the Knesset floor.

This bill, which would give the Chief Rabbinate any and all say on converts and the process of conversion, has become a very heated, but I believe moot, issue, in Israel. In the end, the Knesset vote will not matter; the people have already decided. Halachic Jews will support and stand by the dictates of Halacha - Jewish law - and non-Halachic Jews will not. It's that plain and that simple.

The issue, then, is not legal. The issue is not political. The issue is societal.

Israeli lawmakers are not divided, Israeli society is divided - the lawmakers are simply symbols of that divide.

Let's get some perspective. There has been a steady separation taking place in the Jewish world for a long time. I refer not to the division between Israel and the Diaspora, but the division between Jews who follow Jewish law and those who do not.

You are or you aren't; you do or you don't - with one major exception.  The exception to this rule is the IDF, Israel's army. Those soldiers who die in defense of their country are, in the eyes of the State of Israel, Jewish in death even if they were not Halachically Jewish in life.  You fight as an Israeli Jew; you die as an Israeli Jew. That is not a Halachic determination, it is a legal decision. The State of Israel deems all dead soldiers to be Jewish unless otherwise specified.

In all other areas, the Halachic/Non-Halachic divide has become so significant that is has permeated everyday life. With the rise of Russian and Ethiopian immigration comes the rise of questionable conversions.  Now, when a child is about to pick a mate, in Halachic circles the background check on the parents includes not only questions about financial and marital status questions, but also conversion status.

The Knesset can pass the Conversion Bill or reject it but in Halachic circles that will not change. In secular, non-Halachic circles, bill or no bill, the issue never mattered and never will.

The only grey area in this issue comes from the Conservative movement. The Reform movement has significantly lower standards on the issue of conversion than do the Orthodox or Conservative movements. And yet, motivated purely by political and not religious considerations, in the Knesset Conversion Bill, the organized Conservative movement has chosen to side with the Reform movement. I think that's a mistake, but it is not my issue, right now.

Conversion has always been a part of the Halachic process.  Conversions have always been under the domain of the rabbis or the Rabbinate. Israel does not need a Conversion Bill to mandate conversions to Halachic authorities. Israel needs only common sense.  Israel needs only a Jewish soul. The Chief Rabbinate has always come under criticism from certain corners of the Halachic world.

That, too, will continue. It will continue with conversions, just like it continues with dietary laws, with kashrut. But is should remain a Halachic debate, not a political debate.

The Israeli government should get out of the business of conversion.  The Knesset would do a better job if it let the rabbis do their job for those who respect Halacha.