Slippery Slope

Israel is awash in legislation, court appeals and administrative decrees that threaten, chalilah, to undermine the Jewish character of the country.

On Sunday, the Ministerial Committee for Legislation adopted a proposal that would allow local Rabbis anywhere in the country to perform conversions.

Though this sounds innocuous enough — an attempt to spare those living in the periphery from having to travel all the way to the big city — its aim is to loosen the control of the Chief Rabbinate over the conversion process and introduce dubious standards.

The bill, proposed by MK Elazar Stern, of Tzipi Livni’s Hatnuah party, would allow every religious council and every city Rav to set up a beis din and perform conversions, which will automatically be recognized by the state.

It doesn’t take much imagination to understand what could happen if this bill makes it into law. As the Chief Rabbis said in a statement, it “puts the halachic validity of conversions in Israel at risk.”

Other legislation that is pending relates to civil marriage. Under the status quo agreement that dates back to the early years of the state, marriage and divorce have been under the exclusive purview of the Chief Rabbinate. Now, there is a move to allow for “civil marriages,” a step that has profound ramifications for the future of Am Yisrael. We are talking about opening the floodgates to serious halachic long-term problems.

Some of those behind the civil marriage bill are even pushing for marriages that undermine the most fundamental family values.

Jumping on the bandwagon is Education Minister Shai Piron, who this week proposed that secular schools no longer be required to have a school Rabbi. Is this the pressing issue that faces the secular education system in Israel at a time of rampant school violence and declining academic performance? Is the prospect of having a part-time Rabbi on staff who will try and give the children some taste of the chagim, some rudimentary knowledge of what it means to be a Jew so frightening?

Finally, the High Court of Justice this week gave the state a week to explain why it shouldn’t suspend all funding to yeshivos, since no law has been drawn up to replace the Tal Law on the draft.

The court is seeking to use legal technicalities to take away the yeshivah funding that has been left after serious cuts were already made.

The bottom line is that these measures aren’t only anti-chareidi, they are anti-Jewish, anti-achdus. A country like Israel, that is surrounded by enemies armed with tens of thousands of accurate, long-range missiles and an arch-enemy that is very close to obtaining nuclear weapons, cannot survive without Heavenly mercy and protection.

The legislation being considered will force the religious public to set up its own sifrei yuchsin, independent records that keep track of a person’s lineage.

With marriages, divorces and conversions being opened up to the free market, where all types of self-proclaimed batei din will compete with one another to get business, we can expect standards to drop below the level that we can possibly accept.

MK Yoni Chetboun, from Jewish Home, who regrets his party’s alliance with Yesh Atid and is calling for it to be dissolved, agrees that the civil partnership bill is merely a “symptom” of a wider agenda by Yesh Atid to “break the status quo” between religion and state in Israel.

“Yesh Atid is promoting a ‘civil agenda,’ and we are promoting a Jewish one,” he said. “What they are doing is worse than the freeing of terrorists. … It will lead to intermarriage and assimilation.”

There are many things that can and should be done to halt the attempts to destroy whatever is left of the status quo.

Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi David Lau said this week that the Chief Rabbinate intends to hire legal counsel to represent it and help it fight proposed changes that impact on areas under its jurisdiction. It is vitally important for the Rabbinate to equip itself with the legal means to defend itself and Am Yisrael against unscrupulous politicians who are seeking to gain acclaim, and votes, by appealing to some elements in the secular media and population.

Secondly, and most importantly, every effort must be made to alter the balance of political power so that the government lacks the support for these far-reaching moves. Chetboun isn’t the only member of Jewish Home who understands that it was a tragic mistake to join up with Yesh Atid. There must be a major push, behind the scenes, to help Chetboun explain to his colleagues that they have no common ground with a party that is the polar opposite of Jewish values, and to align itself with its natural partners. Such realignment will allow for a new government that drops anti-religious legislation and promotes and fosters a stronger Jewish identity.

Finally, Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has to play a more active role. He has to understand that if he demands of the Palestinians to recognize Israel as a Jewish state, then he must demand no less of his own government.

These issues are of paramount importance. We must cry out for a yeshuah, for the sake of Am Yisrael and Eretz Yisrael.

This article appeared in print on page 38 of the November 7th, 2013 edition of Hamodia.