Israel High Court: Non-Orthodox converts are Jews

Описание: (2 Mar 2021) The Reform movement in Israel welcomed on Tuesday the Supreme Court landmark ruling that people who converted to Judaism through the Reform and Conservative movements are also Jews and entitled to become Israeli citizens.
The landmark ruling, 15 years in the making, centered around the combustible question of who is Jewish and marked an important victory for the Reform and Conservative movements.
These liberal streams of Judaism, which represent the vast majority of affiliated American Jews, have long been marginalized in Israel.
The lawyer and representative of the Reform movement, Nicole Maor, said the Supreme Court handed down ''the only decision that it could really hand down.''
Israel's powerful ultra-Orthodox establishment has held a virtual monopoly on religious matters for Israeli Jews, overseeing life-cycle rituals like weddings and burials and using their political clout to gain influence over matters like immigration.
The ruling chipped away at that power by saying that the state must allow Jews who undergo conversions with the liberal movements in Israel to receive citizenship.
For Erika Belovai, the court's decision came after years of uncertainty.
Belovai came from Hungary to Israel in 2001 and after being married for one year to an Israeli man, she finished the Reform conversion in 2006.
She returned to Hungary in 2007 after divorcing her husband, but she has always felt like she belongs to Israel.
Belovai tried to return to Israel in 2011, but was arrested and deported back to her home country.
Authorities confiscated her Israeli identity card, she said.  
With Maor's help and after a meeting at the Interior Ministry in 2018, Belovai was given her identification card back.
While Israel previously recognized conversions by the liberal streams conducted overseas, this ruling now applies to conversions inside Israel.
The ruling does not resolve the issues faced by people who qualify for citizenship under the so-called Law of Return but are not considered Jewish under religious law.
Monday's ruling only directly affects about 30 people a year, such as spouses of Israeli citizens, advocates say.
The Law of Return grants citizenship to anyone with at least one Jewish grandparent, while religious law requires one to have a Jewish mother.
These different definitions have allowed tens of thousands of people, mostly from the Soviet Union, to immigrate to Israel, only to suffer from discrimination when seeking religious services from the state.
Belovai said she is looking forward to being able to vote in Israel's elections while wiping tears away.

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