June 9, 2016 — New York, New York
The Jewish Religious Equality Coalition (J-REC) strongly opposes the bill currently before the Knesset that prevents the Reform and Conservative/Masorti movements from using public mikvaot for conversion ceremonies.
The bill was introduced after Israel’s High Court ruled that excluding Reform and Conservative/Masorti converts from immersion in public mikvaot was discriminatory and illegal. The Committee for Interior Affairs discussed the bill on Monday, June 6, in preparation for further committee hearings. This bill would allow local religious councils to deny conversion services to particular expressions of Judaism as it chooses.
Passage of this bill would leave those seeking to convert within the Reform and Conservative/Masorti movements with no legal option for ritual immersion in Israel. Given that public mikvaot are dependent on government funding for construction and maintenance, their usage must not be restricted to a sub-section of the community. Not only does this bill disregard the decision of Israel’s High Court, but it also sends a message that Israel is unsupportive of Reform and Conservative/Masorti Jews worldwide.
MK Moshe Gafni (UTJ), who introduced the bill in February, has expressed opposition to non-Orthodox expressions of Judaism, referring earlier this year to Reform Jews as clowns.
“Passage of this discriminatory bill would be a major step backwards in securing Jewish religious equality in the Jewish State,” urged J-REC Chair Dov Zakheim. “We need more measures to ensure that all expressions of Judaism, not just the Orthodox, are treated with the dignity and respect they deserve as members of Israeli society and the collective Jewish peoplehood.”
J-REC is committed to working with partners across all movements of Judaism, both in Israel and in the Diaspora in stopping this bill that limits religious freedom in Israel and weakens its democratic values.
The Jewish Religious Equality Coalition (J-REC), created by AJC in 2014, is a broad-based coalition of American Jews, Israelis, and Jewish organizations dedicated to the realization of full religious equality in the Jewish state, and is mobilizing support for the creation of alternatives to the Chief Rabbinate on personal status issues.
