Who would have thought that some of the bad guys – from the perspective of non-Orthodox American Jews –would now be the good guys? That’s one revelation from a glance at the latest round of the “Who Is A Jew” controversy.

But first meet David Rotem, a newcomer to the roughly 2,000-year-old debate. In recent months, the secular Israeli politician from the Yisrael Beitenu (“Israel Is Our Home”) Party brought forward various versions of a “conversion bill,” one that would formally define in Israel a Jew as being one who either was born to a Jewish mother or converted in the Jewish state by an Orthodox rabbi paid by the Orthodox-controlled Chief Rabbinate’s office.

Last week Rotem surprised everyone by getting out of committee and onto the Knesset floor a bill for the first of three required votes.

Fortunately, that vote was promptly delayed, which put the matter in a two-month hiatus as the Knesset summer recess began on Thursday, July 22. And on Tuesday this week, Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu – who performed quite poorly in the 1997-99 round on the matter – engineered a compromise for a six-month delay. Netanyahu has vowed that he will not let this bill “tear apart” the Jewish people, which indeed it could.

His compromise brings the input of a coalition of non-Orthodox groups, including the Jewish Agency for Israel, with whom the pluralistic North American Jewish federations (including Baltimore’s The Associated: Jewish Community Federation of Baltimore) is a partner. Last time around, Sharansky was charged with Netanyahu to placate angry American Jews on the issue.

What does Mr. Rotem’s new measure do? First, he says it will help hundreds of thousands of Israelis from the former Soviet Union who are not Jewish convert. That would happen by letting them “shop around” for rabbis approved by the Chief Rabbinate. At present, one must use the state-paid rabbis in their area, meaning they might be stuck with a strict one on keeping Jewish law (which has never been a prerequisite for born Jews).

Rotem’s bill also says that the new conversions can never be overturned – as has happened in recent years due to Orthodox infighting, amongst other matters.

That all sounds noble. But it’s not. In fact, it opens the door for corruption and cynicism. It’s part of the inevitable toxic mix of state-mandated religious norms. Admittedly, Israel will never deal with such matters as the United States does. But it certainly can do better than create even more animosity to all things Jewish.

Where do American Jews come in? We must continually raise this issue with Israeli leaders and friends. At the heart of such efforts must be embracing the reality that the Jewish state is indeed the center of the spoke wheel of world Jewry; that means its rulings on religious matters count everywhere. Yes, non-Orthodox religious Jews – for complicated reasons, including lack of government support – are a small minority within Israel. Yet the reverse stands true elsewhere.

The bottom line: Israel’s law certainly needs change. But cheapening religion to find a more lenient rabbi as well as ignoring non-Orthodox Jewry en masse emits an unwelcome odor. 

ADDENDUM
No one can explain to me why the compromise of 1998 – the Neeman Commission’s work – is no longer valid. It called for potential converts in Israel to study with the rabbi of their choice in an approved curriculum and then they would be validated by an Orthodox beit din (or rabbinical court). In exchange, the non-Orthodox religious groups dropped their lawsuits in front of the Israel Supreme Court.

So everyone compromised – for a while. Then some Orthodox rabbis began declaring the “conversion courts” invalid… and here we are again.

I’m betting in the end we wind up with the same thing – and the same ultimate results to this age-old Jewish spat.