(טז) וַתֹּ֤אמֶר רוּת֙ אַל־תִּפְגְּעִי־בִ֔י לְעָזְבֵ֖ךְ לָשׁ֣וּב מֵאַחֲרָ֑יִךְ כִּ֠י אֶל־אֲשֶׁ֨ר תֵּלְכִ֜י אֵלֵ֗ךְ וּבַאֲשֶׁ֤ר תָּלִ֙ינִי֙ אָלִ֔ין עַמֵּ֣ךְ עַמִּ֔י וֵאלֹהַ֖יִךְ אֱלֹהָֽי׃
(16) And Ruth said: ‘Do not urge me to leave you, to turn back and not follow you. For wherever you go, I will go; wherever you lodge, I will lodge; your people will be my people, and your G-d my G-d. (Trans. JPS 1985)
חוק השבות, תש"י - 1950 *
2. (ב) אשרת עולה תינתן לכל יהודי שהביע את רצונו להשתקע בישראל...
Law of Return 1950
2. (b) An oleh's visa shall be granted to every Jew who has expressed his desire to settle in Israel...
(תיקון מס' 2), תש"ל - 1970 *
א. (א) הזכויות של יהודי ... מוקנות גם לילד ולנכד של יהודי, לבן זוג של יהודי ולבן זוג של ילד ושל נכד של יהודי; להוציא אדם שהיה יהודי והמיר דתו מרצון.
...
4ב. לענין חוק זה, "יהודי" - מי שנולד לאם יהודיה או שנתגייר, והוא אינו בן דת אחרת".
Amendment No. 2 5730-1970*
4A. (a) The rights of a Jew ... are also vested in a child and a grandchild of a Jew, the spouse of a Jew, the spouse of a child of a Jew and the spouse of a grandchild of a Jew, except for a person who has been a Jew and has voluntarily changed his religion.
...
4B. For the purposes of this Law, "Jew" means a person who was born of a Jewish mother or has become converted to Judaism and who is not a member of another religion."
Shmuel Oswald Rufeisen (1922–1998), better known as Brother (or Father) Daniel, O.C.D., was a Polish-born Jew who survived the Nazi invasion of his homeland, in the course of which he converted to Christianity, becoming a Catholic and a friar of the Discalced Carmelite Order. He moved to Israel, where he sought citizenship under the Israeli Law of Return, but was refused by the Israeli government.
In the 1950s, under pressure from a wave of antisemitism by the Polish government, Rufeisen applied for Israeli citizenship under the Law of Return.
The Israeli government denied Rufeisen's request, on the grounds that he had converted to Christianity. The Supreme Court of Israel, 1962 the Court upheld the government's decision: any Jew converting to another religion would lose their preferential access to Israeli citizenship. (Rufeisen v M o In, (1962) 16 PD 2428)
Recognition of Non-Orthodox Conversions Under Israeli Civil Law
In his judgement in Rodriguez-Tushbeim v. Minister of Interior[1], Justice Procaccia affirmed the legitimacy (of recognising for the purposes of the Law of Return) of Non-Orthodox (‘pluralistic’[2]) conversions to Judaism performed abroad:
Since the Orthodox branch is the only one recognised at this time in the state system in Israel, recognition is given, for the purposes of the Law of Return, to the pluralistic religious system abroad as a means whereby a person may join the Jewish people, whether he converted while he was a foreign resident and was living outside Israel, or he converted when he was an Israeli resident.’[3]
[1] HCJ 2597/99
[2] Rodriguez-Tushbeim v. Minister of the Interior., p.312
[3] Rodriguez-Tushbeim v. Minister of the Interior, pp.312-313
בתי דין פרטיים חרדיים בישראל
בישראל קיימים כיום מספר בתי-דין אורתודוקסיים פרטיים שאינם מוכרים על ידי רשויות המדינה והרבנות הראשית.
מתגיירים במסגרות אלו לא יזכו להכרה אזרחית, ולא יזכו ברישום כיהודים במשרד הפנים ובאזרחות ישראלית.
http://www.itim.org.il/גיור/גיור-במקרים-מיוחדים/גיורים-אלטרנטיביים-בישראל
Private Haredi Batei Din in Israel
Today in Israel, a number of private Orthodox Batei Din exist which are not recongised by the State Authorities and the Chief Rabbinate.
People who convert through these frameworks will not be entitled to civil recognition, and will not be entitled to be registered as Jews in the Interior Ministry's Population Registry, or to receive Israeli citizenship.
Jerusalem Post 2014: Recognition of Private Haredi Courts
http://www.jpost.com/Diplomacy-and-Politics/Lipman-calls-for-converts-to-use-private-courts-after-conversion-bill-cancelled-361805
“We’ve had enough. I’m calling on rabbis, public figures and NGOs to work together with organizations such as ITIM to advance non-governmental conversion,” [MK Dov] Lipman said following the cancellation of the vote.
“Converts through these frameworks will convert according to Jewish law, but the state should be extremely concerned if it doesn’t recognize these converts as Jews. I intend to work with colleagues and to help these converts as much as I can. If the Knesset does not take responsibility then we will.”
There are several independent Orthodox rabbinical courts for conversion around the country, but the Interior Ministry refuses to register such converts as Jewish in the population registry, even though converts through the non-Orthodox denominations are registered as Jewish.
*The article errs in implying that converts through non-Orthodox denominations are always registered as Jewish. This is only the case when such conversions were performed outside of Israel. -MN
פסק דין מפורסם של הרב גורן
עסק בעניינם של אח ואחות, חנוך ומרים לנגר, שהוכרזו כממזרים, כיוון שאמם התחתנה בלא להתגרש מבעלה הראשון.
פסק הדין המקיף מצא דרך להתיר להם לבוא בקהל ישראל משום שאין עדים לגבי גיורו של האב וכן על סמך עדויות שהלה אינו שומר מצוות ואף אוכל חזיר והולך לכנסייה, מה שהוביל את הרב גורן לפסוק שהוא אינו נחשב ליהודי וממילא לא היה לאשה צורך בגירושין כדי להינשא לאדם אחר.
פסק זה הביא לשיאו את הקרע בין הרב גורן לבין החוגים החרדיים, לאחר שרבנים חרדיים רבים הכריזו כי "פסקיו והוראותיו בטלים".
הרב שלמה גורן, ויקיפדיה
Post-Facto Invalidation of Conversions -
Rabbi Shlomo Goren's 1972 Psak:
A brother and sister, Hanoch and Miriam Lenger, were declared to be mamzerim, since their mother was married without divorcing her first husband.
The detailed ruling found a way to allow them to be included in the Kahal Yisrael.
Due to a lack of witnesses to the conversion of their mother's first husband, as well as testimonies that he did not keep mitzvot, and even ate pork and attended church, Rabbi Goren came to rule that the first husband is not considered a Jew, and thus, in any case, there was no need for his [Jewish] wife to obtain a divorce in order to marry another man [the children's father].
This ruling brought to its climax the diffrences between Rabbi Goren and the Haredi camp, after Haredi rabbis declared that "his rulings and his instructions are invalid".