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Email this pageWUPJ statement on conversion bill
Dear Friends, By the end of the business day, tomorrow - Wednesday, July 21 - we may all be able to draw a collective sigh of relief, and feel some pride. The Rotem bill, which would have torn the Jewish people apart and legislated discrimination against non-orthodox Jews in Israel and the rest of the world, will not have been brought before the full Knesset for a first reading. At the end of the day tomorrow, Knesset will go into recess until October 11. Despite the fact that neither the battle, nor the war have been won, we have made ourselves heard and we have an opportunity to shape the future, as our concerns have registered in the highest offices of Israel and have aroused the interest and action of Jews in Israel and around the world.
We must be very proud of the partnership we have with the other Reform institutions: the IMPJ and IRAC in Israel were our point-people and they laboured tirelessly on our collective behalf; the URJ, CCAR, ARZA and the RAC from North America worked with us side-by-side and we supported one another; ARZENU helped with our outreach efforts. We are also heartened by the true partnership we created with our Conservative colleagues of the Rabbinical Assembly and Masorti. And we were extremely fortunate to have the cooperation we received from the Federation system. The head of the Jewish Agency, Natan Sharansky, has been our friend and advocate from the very beginning, and we expect that he will be asked to help us find a compromise between now and the re-opening of Knesset in October. Most of all, the World Union for Progressive Judaism, is blessed with active and powerful regional leadership. With letters, emails, phone calls and faxes pouring into the Prime Minister's office from Australia, New Zealand, Asia, South Africa, Israel, Latin America, Europe... we were able to make sure that everyone knew that this was not just an "American" issue - but an international one. You made the international concerns heard - and we are grateful for all of your efforts.
There is still much to do in the days and weeks ahead. We know that Rotem's supporters will be using this time to ramp up their support. We must do the same and keep this issue in the forefront of our minds. We will be working together with our coalition partners to find compromise legislation which will address the very real needs of fixing the broken system of the conversion courts in Israel. But this issue has also engendered a revitalization of the primary goals that we have - to secure religious freedom in Israel, especially for Progressive and Reform Jews; to secure our rights and privileges in the land of our heritage; and to secure democracy and pluralism in the Jewish State. We will continue to work side by side with our coalition partners to ensure that justice is served and our rights are preserved for the sake of K'lal Yisrael.
As we write this on Tisha B'Av, - the day in which we learned tragedy befell our people due to the sin of sinat chinam - baseless hatred - among our own community - we pray that we can find a way to preserve the unity of our people - in Israel and the entire world. With your continued support, may that come soon and in our day.
L'shalom,
