The disenfranchisement of converts can't continue

Imagine you are stopped by a policeman in Jerusalem, who demands to see your driver's license. While you wait in your car, he goes and checks your record and then comes back to your car. "I'm sorry," he says. "Your license was issued in Tel Aviv. It isn't valid here. We're impounding your car."

Sound unrealistic? It isn't. At least not when it comes to conversion.

There are more than ten rabbinates in Israel that refuse to open marriage files for men and women who converted through the Israeli rabbinate. Soldiers who have dedicated there best years to this country and have transformed their lifestyles to become observant are being told that their conversions are worthless. Having studied and focused on Jewish life, having passed through the conversion courts, and having waited to receive their conversion certificates, these soldiers cannot marry in Israel.

Are we reverting back to the third world?

Denying converts basic rights as Jews goes against Israeli law and against Jewish tradition. The Torah is very clear on the way to treat converts, recognizing their vulnerability. And yet, rabbis representing the Orthodox establishment are not being sanctioned for dismissing all of Israeli conversion in toto. 

In Rechovot, the marriage registrar sends every convert who has a conversion certificate from the State of Israel to a rabbinical court for "certification." This is outrageous.

In Rishon LeZion, the clerks open marriage files for converts and send rabbis to perform marriages. But the Ashkenazi chief rabbi won't sign their marriage licenses. In at least three cases I have been involved in, couples had to open marriage files at a different rabbinate - following their ceremonies - to get an official marriage license of the state.

And in Ashkelon, the marriage registrar simply won't open files for any convert. Simply incomprehensible. 

The Israeli taxpayer is paying the salaries of the conversion authority to convert people, and also paying the salaries of the marriage registrars to not recognize those conversions. The Jewish people are paying an even greater price. Because of a few zealots, converts who ought to be embraced are being further disenfranchised.

This cannot be allowed to continue. In the coming weeks, ITIM will bring this issue to the Israeli Supreme Court, in an effort to force the marriage registrars to follow the law and register converts. But it is really up to the Jewish people to cry out and say "no more." We need to redouble our efforts to encourage those who converted to be part of our communities and engage them as full members of the Jewish experience.