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Print this article | Close this window Converting from Judaism requires faith December 28 2002 Israel was founded as a Jewish state for Jewish people, and the Jewish identity is based on the sometimes conflicting foundations of Jewish birth and religious belief. So what legally becomes of Jewish- born Israelis who decide they want to join a different faith? The answer, says the Association for Civil Rights in Israel, is far from clear. A human rights advocacy group, ACRI is preparing a court challenge on behalf of four Jewish-born Israelis after the Ministry of the Interior refused to to register their conversions to Islam. ACRI says the four were told they could not convert without the approval of the Ministry of Religious Affairs, which in turn tried to put pressure on them to change their minds. All four have been told they will have to justify their decisions before a special committee that includes a psychiatrist and a social worker. An ACRI lawyer, Banna Shoughry-Badarne, said the obstruction of conversions was illegal and raised serious questions about Israel's democratic obligation to ensure freedom of religion. She said that while Israeli law does require citizens to register their conversion, it requires only a certificate from the convert's new religious authority to make the change legal. "There is nothing saying you need permission to leave a religion," she said. "All you need is the certificate of conversion from your new religion and your identity card. The Ministry of Religious Affairs is entitled, according to Israeli law, to look and see if the certificate is correct and to be sure that you are the same person whose name is on the certificate. This is the only thing Religious Affairs is entitled to check. The Ministry of the Interior isn't entitled to check anything at all. It has to accept what you tell it." One man has been summoned to the ministry four times, only to have the meeting cancelled each time. A clerk at the ministry allegedly insulted a Jewish-born unmarried woman in her twenties. He said she was a traitor and accused her of wanting to convert so she could sleep with Arab men. The four individuals represented by ACRI report repeated attempts to persuade them that Judaism is a superior religion to Islam. Since taking up the case in August, ACRI says it has received no official explanation from either ministry about a practice that came to light only when the organisation received complaints from the public this year. So with all this hassle and red tape, why bother telling the Government about your private beliefs? Religious registration is a strict legal requirement, but Israeli law imposes different obligations and rights on Jewish and non-Jewish citizens. Notably, Muslims are informally exempt from compulsory military service, while under the key "Law of Return" the children and grandchildren of Jews have automatic Israeli citizenship rights that are denied to Israeli-born non-Jews. Moreover, Israel has no civil marriage or civil family law, so marriage and inheritance disputes must be resolved in religious courts. Mortgages, welfare and residency rights often depend on marital status. And while there is little official discrimination against non- Jewish Israelis, many (mostly Muslim or Christian Arabs) allege extensive informal discrimination in areas such as jobs, housing, allocation of state resources and treatment by the security forces. Ms Shoughry-Badarne said that one of ACRI's four clients is a Jewish-born woman who converted to Islam when she married an Egyptian Muslim. She wants to inform the Interior Minister of her new Muslim status so that her marriage will be recognised and her husband will be legally entitled to live in Israel. But she wants to retain her Jewish status with the Ministry of Religious Affairs so that her children do not lose the right to decide themselves whether they want to be Jewish or Muslim. If she converts to Islam it will be very difficult for her children to convert to Judaism. ACRI said the Interior Ministry had ordered the woman to convert formally and the religious ministry was so far failing to let her. At the time of writing the Ministry of the Interior had not responded to questions on the subject. A spokeswoman from the Ministry of Religious Affairs told the Herald that the committee requirement is not new and that there have been no changes to conversion procedures in recent years. She said she did not know whether the conversion committee includes a psychiatrist, but said that in "99 per cent" of cases it decides to allow conversions to take place, issuing about 30 certificates each year. The ministry does not give a breakdown about which religions are gaining or losing adherents by the conversions. Asked on what grounds the ministry might refuse permission to change legal religious status, she said "matters of security, or something else". Asked why the Israeli Government concerns itself directly with the religious beliefs of its citizens, she said the law on religious registration was introduced by the British authorities after World War I, when the League of Nations mandated Britain to run the former Turkish province of Palestine. "Basically it's a British thing." The Ministry of Religious Affairs says there is no difference in the procedures for converting away from Judaism and those for converting from other faiths. However, Ms Shoughry-Badarne said that a clerk at the ministry informed her that the procedures do differ, and that different clerks handle different types of conversion. The Israel Religious Action Centre, a legal arm of the moderate Jewish Reform movement, said that when converts to Reform Judaism want to register their new status they are asked only to produce a certificate from their rabbinical court. "When someone wants to become registered as Jewish the Religious Affairs Ministry is not involved at all - only the Interior Ministry," said a spokeswoman for the Israel Religious Action Centre, Sharon Tal. "I don't know why, when you want to become a Muslim, the Religious Affairs Minister has to be involved at all." The president of the ecclesiastical court of the Greek Orthodox patriarchate in Jerusalem, Metropolitan Cornelius, said he was not aware of any of the converts to his church - the biggest Christian community in the Holy Land - being required to justify their decision to the Ministry of Religious Affairs. He said the Greek Orthodox community in Jerusalem does not receive Jewish converts because of its concern that it might run foul of laws against proselytising. The few Jews who do wish to join the church are advised to do so abroad. Battling to build a secure Jewish homeland after centuries of exile and persecution, the Israeli Government makes no apologies for its policy of boosting the country's inbuilt Jewish majority by encouraging immigration. But with almost a million people of Jewish ancestry flooding into the country in the past 10 years from the former Soviet Union alone, why should the Israeli Government concern itself with what could never be more than a trickle of converts away from the Jewish faith? The answer, its critics suspect, could be a matter of faith. The Interior Ministry and the Religious Affairs Ministry are run by ministers who are members of Shas, a party for ultra-orthodox right- wing Jews. For all the Machiavellian concerns bound up with government, and from which Shas is very far from aloof, these are people who might actually care about your soul as well as your vote. This story was found at: http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2002/12/27/ 1040511177301.html~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Forwarded as information only; everything sent has to stand on its own merits, not on my recommendation. Dissenting ideas are the health of the American system. A<:>E<:>R + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, this material is distributed without charge or profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving this type of information for non-profit research and educational purposes only. + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + The only real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes. -Marcel Proust + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + "Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it. Do not believe simply because it has been handed down for many generations. Do not believe in anything simply because it is spoken and rumored by many. Do not believe in anything simply because it is written in Holy Scriptures. Do not believe in anything merely on the authority of Teachers, elders or wise men. 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