JERUSALEM — Israel's liberal Jewish movements Wednesday won a landmark court case in their long struggle for official recognition here but immediately braced for new battles in parliament.
A Jerusalem District Court judge ruled that 23 petitioners converted to Judaism by Reform rabbis, in Israel and abroad, are entitled to be registered as Jews by the Interior Ministry. The decision marked the first time that a court has recognized as valid the conversions performed in Israel by Reform or Conservative rabbis and not only by Orthodox rabbis.
The liberal movements, which claim relatively few adherents in Israel but represent the majority of American Jews, have been fighting to break a long-standing Orthodox monopoly over conversions and religious affairs in Israel. The sensitive issue has threatened to create a rift between Israel and Diaspora Jewry.
Reform and Conservative leaders here hailed Wednesday's ruling by Judge Vardi Zeiler, the president of the Jerusalem District Court, as a "historic" and "courageous" decision that recognizes the rights of their members to practice their own type of Judaism in the Jewish state.
The ruling "restores the lost honor of scores of converts and their families" whose cases have been pending before the courts for years, said Rabbi Uri Regev, who heads the Reform movement in Israel.
Leaders of the Orthodox establishment condemned the decision, however, and vowed to fight it on two fronts. They said they will appeal the ruling in court and renew their attempts to pass legislation that will guarantee their sole right to perform conversions in Israel.
The Orthodox authorities strongly oppose allowing any recognition of the liberal movements, which they view as deviations from true Judaism. The Orthodox adhere strictly to Jewish laws.
One of Israel's two chief rabbis, Eliahu Bakshi-Doron, warned Wednesday: "Clearly, this ruling . . . means that there will be assimilation in the state of Israel, just as the Reform and Conservative [movements] caused the terrible assimilation in the United States."
American Reform and Conservative rabbis rejoiced at news of the court's decision, calling it a victory for religious pluralism in a country where matters of personal status--from marriage to death--have traditionally been controlled by the Orthodox rabbinate.
