It is amazing to me that sane and realistic people who do not like the absolute control of the Orthodox establishment in Israel would argue in favor of the Conversion Bill. Israel Harel, wrote in Haaretz that:
The Reform and Conservative movements want to obtain official status in Israel, alongside Orthodoxy. I support this. It is this desire that is the true reason for their outcry. But even if the High Court grants their wish, their status will remain unchanged. There are fewer than 100 congregations in Israel that describe themselves as Reform or Conservative, and most are small; compare that to thousands of active and growing Orthodox congregations. Only spiritual influence, not High Court rulings, can fill their ranks – and influence legislation.
Harel is correct that the Reform and Conservative movements should have official status alongside Orthodoxy in Israel, but he is, and frankly most Israelis are, grossly incorrect about why they do not already have such status and therefore his conclusions are totally incorrect as well. The lack of affiliated Reform and Conservative Jews in Israel is primarily due to systematic discrimination against non-Orthodox Jewry in Israel that has existed for decades.
Just for starters, Orthodox synagogues are funded by the state, their rabbis paid by the state. Reform and Conservative Jews are forced to pay all of the expenses for their synagogues and pay 100% of the compensation for their rabbis. It is much like Public vs. Private schools in the United States. Israelis have already paid for the Orthodox institutions and have to pony up additional funds to attend and support Reform and Conservative ones. To argue that the playing field is in any way fair, one must be wantonly ignorant. Did I mention that only Orthodox rabbis can perform marriages approved by the state? People wishing Reform or Conservative ceremonies must leave Israel, get married elsewhere, and then return to have a religious ceremony after the fact.
One must wonder whether or not absent these facts there would already be hundreds of thousands of Reform and Conservative Jews in Israel if the state would ALLOW them! How many of those 300,000 Russian Olim would be in Reform and Conservative congregations??? Unfortunately for the Reform and Conservative movements in Israel, only the High Court has had the sense to recognize that a Democratic country should not discriminate on the basis of religion!!!
If the playing field were remotely level, if the laws and funding were remotely fair and the situation remained one in which Reform and Conservative Jews failed to obtain adherents, we could then realistically talk about the “spiritual influence.” But right now, Orthodox leaders may threaten to disallow marriages, prevent conversion to Reform or Conservative Judaism, and the cost of being a Reform or Conservative Jew in Israel is  hundreds or even thousands of Shekels per year over the cost of being Orthodox in Israel because the Orthodox institutions are paid for by the state!!! It is an outrageous misrepresentation to argue that “if only more Reform Jews came to Israel” as some do or “if only they worked harder to reach out with spiritual influence” Reform and Conservative Jews would be treated fairly and equally. In a Democracy, in a Democratic Jewish state, equality should be law and fact. It is one of the greatest failings of the Jewish state that this is not the case and as a devoted lover and defender of Israel, it is terribly painful for me to see this occurring. The problem is with institutionalized and legal discrimination against non-Orthodox Judaism. We need to stop pretending that further strengthening or consolidating power in a system that is anti-Democratic and discriminates against Jews will somehow strengthen Israel as a Jewish state and benefit the Jewish people. It does neither.
On the other hand, it does jeopardize the vital relationship between Israel and America. America’s Jews are overwhelmingly from those movements whose adherents are discriminated against in Israel. If Israel does not solve its discrimination problem, in the long run, the vital relationship will deteriorate. The Conversion Bill is a giant leap in the wrong direction. Thankfully it has been tabled for six months so that saner heads might prevail.
PM Netanyahu said:
The changes in the conversion laws should be reached through broad understanding, to prevent a schism in the Jewish people. Unity is a primary national interest, and I am determined to preserve it.
The Jewish Federations of North America’s President and CEO Jerry Silverman welcomed the agreement as “significant” and said in response to Netanyahu’s announcement:
We truly support this process of a dialogue table, which allows the participants time to discuss this important issue appropriately and reach a solution that protects the bonds between Israel and the Diaspora. We are also thrilled that Natan Sharansky will be leading the process.
There are 300,000 Russian Olim who are not Jewish. Last year, there were 2,000 conversions performed in Israel. Two thousand, not 20,000, not 50,000, not 100,000. Two thousand. Â One of the major complaints, even from Orthodox rabbis, about this bill is that it would not significantly increase that 2,000 number. Even if it doubles, it would be a far cry from addressing the needs of 300,000. Â Orthodox conversion is simply not the answer. Perhaps, just perhaps, Reform and Conservative Judaism can help. By the way, of the 2,000 conversions performed in Israel last year, 200 were Reform and that was without a dime of help from the government.
As a Russoan-Jewish immigrant in Israel, I can tell you that very few of those 300 000 Russian-born non-Jewish immigrants actually wish to convert. They do not feel terribly deprived; they are far too proud of their original identity and culture, and conversion for the sake of convenience is often seen as treasonous to that identity and culture (think of how you would feel about Jews converting to Christianity for money. Crude analogy perhaps, but you see my point, don’t you?). Also, people of Russian extraction- Jews and non-Jews alike- are deeply skeptical of Reform Judaism; they see it as a kind of cop-out- too Christianity-like and not sufficiently “authentically Jewish”. The failure of the Reform Judaism among the Russian immigrants in Israel is mirrorer by its failure in Russia, while Orthodox movements like the CHABAD were far more successful.
See the comment to the “Why it is important” article above. All of the arguments in the world about whether or not people might choose Reform Judaism are irrelevant because they do not have that choice. You are correct that many will not choose Reform Judaism, but no few who will not choose Orthodoxy, might choose Reform.
Last year, 2,000 people in Israel converted to Judaism. If you were to double that total with a new conversion system, it would not make a dent in the 300,000 total.
If it were the case that Jews could choose what kind of Judaism to practice in Israel and were treated fairly, no matter what movement they were from, and if, under those circumstances, Reform Judaism failed to catch on, I would have no argument. But preventing that possibility and then supposing that it would come to pass, just does not work. While some accuse Reform Judaism of being a path out of Judaism, for hundreds of thousands, it is the sole path to remain IN, and for thousands more, the only path to enter Judaism to begin with.
When you acknowledge that “Messianic Judaism” (aka Xianity) is as much “Judaism” as any other human invented “offshoot”, then I will see that you understand what is going on. Reform is to modern Judaism, what the Sadducees were to Judaism in the time of the Maccabees. Just as the Sadducees were invented to allow the Hellenists to become a “religious” stream, so too Reform was invented by the enlightenment to justify there becoming totally “secular”. Conservatism was an attempt to recognize that Reform had gone too far in running away from Judaism without completely doing t’shuvah. However, the way they have developed in the last century shows that neither group understands what Judaism is.
Having seen your other post that Israeli Reorm does not recognize “patrilineal” descent like the American group. I would say that you have two different religions. Telling American youth who are halachically Jewish that they will not be recognized as “Jewish” as well as telling someone who wants to convert that he does not need to convert halachically is a lie that will lead to tragedy. When Bai Hillel and bais Shammai disagreed on a matter of marriage, they kept careful records and warned each oth so that there would not be a problem later on. Forcing the split will just lead to tragedy in the future.
I agree that there will need to be records kept and that those who are Jewish by patrilineal descent will face problems in the future should they decide to marry a Jew from a movement that does not accept it. Additionally, there are problems for grandchildren and later descendants. It is indeed a problem. Accommodation for that problem is the issue. Mikvah and conversion solves the problem if the individual wishes to marry according to the more traditional streams, which for this issue includes Conservative Judaism.