THE ISRAELI parliament yesterday gave initial approval to legislation that, if fully approved, could well cause a deep split in world Jewry, because it undermines the Reform and Conservative streams of Judaism.
Knesset members voted 51-32 at the first reading of a bill that would outlaw all conversions of non-Jews to Judaism in Israel unless they are carried out by Orthodox rabbis.
Under the law, which now goes back to a Knesset committee before its second and final readings, people who become Jewish in Israel through Reform or Conservative Judaism would not be eligible for automatic citizenship, might not be able to get married in the Jewish state, and might not be able to register their children as Jewish.
Sponsors of the Bill in the coalition government of the Prime Minister, Mr Benjamin Netanyahu said the measure would also pass its second and third readings to become law.
Quite apart from the local implications of the legislation (which could affect tens or even hundreds of thousands of recent immigrants from the former Soviet Union) the wider effect could be to drive a deep wedge between Orthodox Jews on the one hand and the milder Reform and Conservative streams on the other, worldwide.
British Jewry is already grappling with this problem, after the recent publication of a letter in which the Orthodox Chief Rabbi, Dr Jonathan Sacks, expressed profound reservations over Reform Judaism. His sentiments, when revealed, deeply offended Reform Jews and emphasised the split between the various shades of belief.
While Reform and Conservative Jews are a small minority in Israel, a 1990 study in the US suggested that as many of 80 per cent of American Jews considered themselves Reform or Conservative.
And although spokesmen for Mr Netanyahu's government insist that the law would do nothing to undermine those streams of the faith abroad, many Reform and Conservative leaders say they feel the law would brand their Judaism as less than authentic, since their rabbis would not be regarded in Israel as competent to introduce people to the faith.
That snub for Conservative and Reform Judaism, these leaders have warned, would be likely to reduce identification with Israel, and financial support for the Jewish state.