Lapid says gov’t ‘betrayed’ Russian immigrants, US Jews

Lapid slams Netanyahu, as well, on the government’s rejection of the conversion reform.

The government “betrayed” three groups of citizens, says Lapid, speaking to Ynet. First are women: “A woman who goes to a rabbinical court on matters related to marriage is in a worse position than before, and has become a second-class citizen in the view of the [rabbinical] courts.”

“The second betrayal is against 300,000 Israeli citizens who are told, you will be drafted to the army, and in Operation Protective Edge you will die, but in real life you’re second-class citizens and your conversion will never come.”

“Finally,” Lapid says, the government “betrayed world Jewry. On the one hand they try to recruit US Jews to fight the Iranian nuclear program, to get more security assistance for Israel. But yesterday we told them – their rabbis are not rabbis, their conversions are not conversions, their synagogues are not synagogues. The State of Israel pronounces them second-class Jews.”

Lapid is referring to the rolling back of a massive reform in the amount of control the Chief Rabbinate has over issues of marriage, conversion, and the laws of Kashrut. The reform, worked out during the previous government, was championed by Yesh Atid, among other parties.

It would facilitate the conversion of immigrants from the former Soviet Union who were eligible for citizenship but not recognized as Jews and are required to undergo Orthodox conversion in order to marry in Israel. It would also take away part of the power the Chief Rabbinate holds and delegate it to municipal rabbinates, where some Jewish adjudicators are more liberal than others, thus allowing couples with complicated issues relating to their status as Jews to register for marriage in a municipality of their choice.

Finally, a bill on private Kashrut certification was postponed following objection from ultra-Orthodox parties. The bill would let businesses be considered kosher without needing a certificate from the Chief Rabbinate.

The legislative package, as a whole, would bring Israel slightly closer to a separation of religion and state and would divest institutions controlled by ultra-Orthodox political parties of some of the authority they currently hold.