Blue and White MK Tehila Friedman was asked by Arutz Sheva for her opinion on Monday's Supreme Court ruling recognizing Reform and Conservative conversions of Israeli residents, providing them eligibility to immigrate to the country based on the Law of Return.
Friedman said Jewish law was not "set in stone" but an "ongoing process," that required flexibility on the part of rabbinical leaders as well as the Jewish community as a whole.
The Blue and White MK pointed out that the battle over the eligibility of non-Orthodox conversions had been ignored by the government over the past 15 years, "forcing the Supreme Court to make a decision on its behalf." Referring to immigrants from the former Soviet republics who have undergone conversion within the framework of their service in the IDF, Friedman voiced strong support for "half a million of our brothers and sisters yet to be recognized by the State."
Friedman also called for open dialogue, reminding viewers that former minister Moshe Nissim, who had suggested to separate between Israel's haredi-led rabbinical authority and conversion system, establishing a state-run authority in its place, made a similar proposal to the one adopted by the Court as early as 2018. That proposal failed to receive the necessary support due to opposition from the haredi camp and religious Zionist camp.
“At the time I proposed establishing courts for conversion and determined that the conversion would be done according to Torah law and the judges would be certified by the Chief Rabbinate. They didn’t accept the proposal because the words ‘under the supervision of the Chief Rabbinate’ did not appear in it," Nissim said in an interview to Kann Radio.