JERUSALEM (RNS) Since becoming a father more than two years ago, Maxim Fomenko, a Jewish immigrant from the former Soviet Union, has dreamed of converting his two young sons to Judaism.
Judaism is passed down from mother to child, according to traditional Judaism, and Fomenko’s wife isn’t considered Jewish by the Chief Rabbinate, the sole government-approved arbiter of Jewish law in Israel, which follows a strict ultra-Orthodox line.
Although his wife “very much wants to convert, the rabbinate makes it exceedingly difficult,” Fomenko said.
Among the demands the rabbinate places on converts and their often-secular Jewish spouses: full observance of Sabbath rules and maintaining a strictly kosher home.
The rabbinate would also require both Fomenko and his wife to attend up to 10 hours of religion classes every week, he said. “I can’t take the time off from work and besides, I’m already Jewish,” he said, clearly frustrated.
Given these demands, the Fomenkos were happy to learn that a group of prominent modern Orthodox rabbis recently established a more welcoming conversion court system to serve the 350,000 non-Jewish Russian immigrants and their descendants who consider themselves Jewish, but are not recognized as such by the government.
The alternative court was formed in April, soon after ultra-Orthodox members of the newly elected government rejected legislation that would have empowered local rabbis to establish presumably more lenient conversion courts around the country.
The new courts reflect growing realization that the rabbinate is no longer meeting the needs of the public.
Rabbi Seth Farber, who spearheaded the creation of the new conversion court system, said a solution had to be found for non-Jewish members of the Russian immigrant community.
“They see themselves as fully Jewish and their entire identity and sociological affinity is Jewish,” he said. “But the overwhelming majority aren’t religiously observant and the rabbinate has adopted a very, very high conversion threshold for religious observance.”
On average only 1,800 Israelis per year convert to Judaism, Farber said.
Farber, founding director of ITIM, an organization that advocates for people navigating the government’s religious bureaucracy, said the hurdles the rabbinate places in the immigrant’s path make it impossible for most to get married in Israel.
Although non-Jewish immigrants are accorded full citizenship, he emphasized, there is a loophole: Israel forbids intermarriage, and there is no civil marriage, so non Jews who want to marry Israeli Jews have three choices: They can marry in a non-Orthodox ceremony, in which case their marriage won’t be recognized by the government; live as common-law spouses; or marry abroad and receive civil spousal rights upon their return to Israel.
“The Jewish state cannot afford to have two classes of citizens,” Farber said.
Rabbi David Stav, chairman of modern-Orthodox Tzohar rabbinical association and one of the alternative court’s most prominent members, said there are two main differences between the new court system and the rabbinate’s.
“We want to encourage (people) to convert,” he said. “The rabbinate automatically treats their motives as suspect. Second, we are focusing mainly on converting young children, even when the mother doesn’t want to convert.”
The rabbinate’s rules do not permit rabbinical court judges to convert children unless the non-Jewish mother converts and both parents commit to a strictly Orthodox lifestyle.
The rabbinate’s spokesman could not be reached for comment.
Stav said the alternative court would expect the parents of converted children to raise them in a “traditional Jewish” environment but would not require the parents to become fully observant themselves.
At the moment, Stav said, the alternative court requires parents to send their children to religious schools but this might change in the future if the court begins to provide “special seminars” on Jewish law and customs to the children.
Those converted in alternative courts would not be recognized by the state, but Stav is hopeful this will change.
“If we convert only 100 to 200 people every year the government won’t recognize them,” he said. “If the numbers increase dramatically we believe the government and the rabbinate will accept them.”
While lauding the modern Orthodox rabbis for challenging the rabbinate, Uri Regev, a Reform rabbi and head of Hiddush, an organization that promotes religious freedom, doubts the alternative courts will encourage large numbers of immigrants to convert.
“For anyone who knows the reality of the Russian community, this is a nonstarter,” Regev said. “Maybe they will get a handful of converts but unless the court is willing to validate the lives of secular Israelis or those just to the right of them religiously … being more kind in processing the converts will not do the trick.”
But Fomenko believes there are many immigrants like him who want to convert their children to Judaism and will find the alternative court a practical solution.
“I wasn’t able to marry in Israel and I very much want my children to be able to marry here and have a Jewish home,” he said. “The road is long but we see some light at the end of it.”