Document #1045885
IRB – Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada (Author)
The following information was provided
during an interview held in Jerusalem on 31 May 1996 with the
Director of Conversions of Machon Zomet.
Background
Machon Zomet is a private institution, an
administrative body, that receives government funding for the
purpose of conversion matters. The Chief Rabbinate relies on and
trusts our institution (Minhal Hagiyar be Israel). The objective of
our institution is to help the whole conversion process to go
smoothly without the bureaucratic problems usually associated with
it, and also to increase the number of conversions. There are now
three special Rabbinical Courts for conversion. These are very
active courts and they deal very fairly and very objectively with
all conversions that come before them. We also deal with problems
that arise in the regular Rabbinical Court. Another of our
objectives is to increase the number of schools in Israel where
there are a large number of immigrants. These schools are all over
Israel, in all the big cities.
Our institution found out that in the first
year of their stay in Israel, immigrants are much more open towards
Jewish religious values (including conversion) than they are three
or four years later. This is because they learn that you can live
in the State of Israel as a secular person.
The attitude towards conversion in the
State of Israel is different than in the diaspora. Our institution
deals with conversion only with people who are Israeli citizens. We
deal differently with people who just want to stay temporarily in
Israel (for example, people who come from the Western countries
with the intention to go back).
The Jewish Agency funds our schools; only a
minimum fee is asked to attend these schools. This is in order to
help people integrate into Israeli society. This is not advertized.
However, our institution is being advertized by the Religious
Affairs Ministry.
Conversion Procedures
Let us start with the problem of conversion
pertaining to Jews and non-Jews who are coming to Israel. Non-Jews
usually come to Israel in mixed families. In the beginning, they
are more apprehensive about the fact that they are non-Jewish. When
they send their children to school, usually in non-religious
schools or secular schools, they are apprehensive about that fact.
But, as time goes on, they get used to it. Israeli society is
generally not prejudiced against the non-Jews.
Some problems may arise in the dormitory
schools. In those schools, boys who live together can make the
distinction between those who are circumcised and those who are not
(this also applies to those who go into the army). Some of them are
ashamed of the fact that they have not been circumcised and then
they want to be circumcised to be like all the other boys. Our
institution has never heard that somebody was beaten up because he
was not circumcised. For example, Israeli Jews do not make a
distinction between Ethiopian Jews and non-Jews. But Ethiopian Jews
do make it. The Israeli Jews could make a distinction between an
Arab and a Jew, but they do not differentiate so much between the
non-Jews from the Eastern countries or the Western countries. Some
questions may be asked on one's religious affiliation if you attend
a religious school but not if you attend a secular school.
Generally speaking, as long as you are an Israeli citizen no
questions will be asked.
The only place where there might be
problems is among the Soviet immigrants themselves. Some immigrant
Jews might have been discriminated against in Russia, Ukraine or
Belarus and could be sensitive to these questions, but a regular
Israeli who has never suffered anti-semitism is not. Among boys in
dormitories, circumcision might be a problem. The life of
immigrants in Israel may be difficult because of other reasons such
as the lack of work, the economic level of the regular Israeli. But
the living and the economic conditions of immigrants are far better
here in Israel than it is for the Jews who live in today's
Russia.
Israel never had a missionary program nor
made an appeal to non-Jews to join the Jewish nation and to accept
the Jewish religion. This has never been the goal of the nation of
Israel. When people want to convert and become part of the Jewish
nation then the Hallakha (the Jewish law) deals with that subject.
But obviously the motivation to convert comes from the non-Jew and
not the other way around. Unlike Christian missionaries who went to
Africa in order to spead the message, this has not been the case
for Judaism.
There is a difference between converting
outside Israel and converting people here in Israel. Today, Jews in
the rest of the world, the organized religious communities (even
orthodox, not only conservative and reform) are on the defensive
because there is a large amount of assimilation. The number of Jews
is going down, they are not rising. Jews are not multiplying
elsewhere in the world. Usually, conversion happens because of
practical reasons, not religious reasons. For example, bringing up
your children like all the other Jews who live in Israel, marrying
a Jew, to conform to the norm. Conversion today is looked upon more
favourably than it was a few years back in Israel. Today we are
even appealing to mixed families of Soviet immigrants to come and
convert.
You can make a request for conversion by
applying to the Rabbinical Court. This is an option that is open to
everybody. A few hundred (200 or 300) conversions are made through
this Court every year. You can also make a request for conversion
by applying to special conversion courts. These courts were founded
just a few years ago and they deal only with conversions. These
courts have special consideration toward Soviet immigrants. They
are supervised by the Chief Rabbinate of Israel. These courts are
connected to schools which are run and funded today by the Jewish
Agency. Usually, the learning in these schools is done in the
evening, after work (or partly in the afternoon and partly in the
evening). These schools teach Jewish law, Jewish philosophy and
Jewish history. These schools are connected to the Rabbinical Court
and their curriculum is laid down by the Jewish Courts. The
students who graduate from these schools are accepted in the Jewish
nation.
The learning program usually takes a year.
The students also have a tutorial family that shows them what
religious Jewish life is all about, what is the Jewish sabbath,
etc. This gives the immigrants the opportunity to integrate
socially with an Israeli family. Once they have completed their
studies and passed one exam, the students are sent to a Rabbinical
Court which accepts or rejects their request for conversion. Some
people are sometimes turn away from conversion because they see the
Jewish nation differently than the Jewish Hallakha or because they
do not want to observe the Jewish laws. These people can however be
accepted in the Israeli society but they may have problems when
they want to get married. Nobody is turned away completely and
forever from conversion, all can reapply. Bureaucracy has also been
made more easy to facilitate conversion.
To recap : 1) a certificate is given by the
Chief Rabbinate to the people who convert; 2) the Religious Affairs
Ministry then has to approve the conversion with respect to the
law; 3) the newly converted immigrant goes to the Ministry of
Interior and requests that the appropriate modifications be made to
his or her status in the registry and on their Teudat Zehut.
Cancelling a conversion
It can be done only in one instance. If a
person who has converted says that she had lied about her
conversion in front of the Rabbinical Court, then the Rabbinical
Court can cancel the conversion. On the other hand, if people say
at first that they accept Judaism with all its laws but changed
their mind after a year or two, this does not cancel the
conversion.
Now, there are cases where a person has
told the Rabbinical Court that she is going back to live in a
secular kibbutz but that she had made provisions to follow the
Jewish law. In such instances, the Rabbinical Court could
agree.
This Response was prepared after
researching publicly accessible information currently available to
the DIRB within time constraints. This Response is not, and does
not purport to be, conclusive as to the merit of any particular
claim to refugee status or asylum.
Reference
Director of Conversions, Machon Zomet,
Gush Etzion. 31 May 1996. Interview.