The Supreme Court last week struck down the policy of only allowing non-Jewish children who are up for adoption in Israel to undergo an Orthodox conversion to Judaism and to be adopted only by Orthodox Jews.
The court ruled on a petition which was filed in 2003 by the Israel Movement for Reform and Progressive Judaism, which sought to allow for non-Orthodox conversions even though non-Orthodox conversions are not recognized by the Israeli Chief Rabbinate.
The State argued that only allowing Orthodox conversions was in the best interest of the children, as non-Orthodox conversions would make it harder for them to marry later in life due to such conversions not being recognized by the rabbinate.
This argument was rejected by the nine-justice panel, and the State subsequently agreed to abandon the practice of only allowing for Orthodox conversions for children who are up for adoption. Instead, each case will now be judged on an individual basis.
The door was opened for the latest ruling by another ruling by the Supreme Court in 2021, when the court decided that people who underwent Reform or Conservative conversions were eligible to move to Israel under the Law of Return.