For a long time, the question of who is and isn’t a jew has always been a debate in Israel. Since the state was founded, the government has had Orthodox Jewish authorities who didn’t view converts to Judaism. This all changed on Monday when the Israeli supreme court granted the right to citizenship to people who convert from their religion to conservative or reform Judaism and not orthodox. This quickly became popular with an overwhelming amount of non-Jewish people who wanted to convert to Judaism. Before, there was a ‘Law of Return”, that gave foreign-born Jews or anyone who had a Jewish relative, the right to automatic citizenship. On the other hand, for the reform and conservative groups, it was a victory and 15 years in the making. This win shrinks the monopoly that the orthodox rabbis have had in terms of Israeli society. Many people were for and against this ruling including prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Yossif Yosef. Netanyahu said that it would be a reason to vote for his party as well as to “ensure a stable right-wing government that will restore sovereignty to the people.” In addition, Anat Hoffman, who is the executive director of the Israel Religious Action Center, thought this was a great idea because it opened up the idea that there is more than one way to be Jewish. On the other hand, there is Yossif Yosef who is one of the chief rabbis and he thought that this was a huge mistake and the conversion to Reform or Conservative is evidence of counterfeit Judaism. This ruling is very sensitive due to the upcoming election and the battle between the secular and religious communities that have been going on throughout the pandemic. Furthermore, this might seem like a good idea but according to the Isreal Religious Action center, the conversion process takes 2 to 3 years.
Discussion Questions:
What do this new ruling and the response of the people tell us about the orthodox people who live in Isreal?
To what degrees should religion be involved in the government of a country?
Source:
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/01/world/middleeast/israel-jewish-converts-citizenship.html
I do not believe religion should be incredibly involved in the government or lawmaking process of a country, because there will always be religious minorities that are inevitably hurt by laws that are too heavily influenced by one particular religion, and that will face discrimination for their religion because of another religion's influence in their country's government and society. Of course, religion will always be involved to some degree in the governments of nations across the world, and it isn't always a bad thing, but some degree of separation of church and state must occur (the term is unfortunately Christian-centric, but the concept should apply to all religions).
ReplyDeleteThe new ruling and response of the people tells us that the orthodox people are particular about who identifies with Judaism. I don't think this is necessarily a bad thing because it's important to make sure the people that choose to identify as jewish are doing it for the right reasons (not fishing or etc). I think the easy answer is that religion should not be involved at all in a government (especially for a country like our own) however Israel was a primarily Jewish country and there is a ton of religious history weaved into the laws and the build of the country itself. Part of respecting ones history is respecting ones beliefs so it makes sense to have a few sets of laws that protect Israel's history (and therefore the religion) however there are a wide range of religions in the country so the government shouldn't be making laws that exclude anyone from having any belief.
ReplyDeleteI do not believe that religion should play a giant factor into a countries government because it has a possibility of harming an ethnic group. There could be specific laws or rules that contradict some peoples religion or practice. I think that being mindful of this would be very considerate of a country. However i believe that some rules are ok. in Israel a lot of stores close for shabbat (starting on Friday, shabbat is a rest day) . In this case i think it is appropriate for a country to implement this as it is not directly affecting another practice. Rules like this i believe are ok.
ReplyDeleteI do not think that religion should play any role in a countries government. This is because it is likely that there will be discrimination among other religions and it would paternally harm minority groups. I think it is important that religion is separated from the state. However, I think it is ok that different religions are allowed to take time off for special holidays in their culture and I think this should be true for all religions.
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