New Rabbinate regulations allow inquiries into Jewishness of all of us, not just converts or couples registering for marriage

According to new regulations issued by Chief Rabbinate, even if you weren’t about to register for marriage, or petition a rabbinic court – it can summon you and initiate a hearing that will inquire into your Jewishness. Rivkah Lubitch, a rabbinic pleader who works at the center for Women’s Justice, thinks this is harassment, and not only of new immigrants

In effect, the entire nation of Israel is presumed to be Not-Jewish – until proven otherwise. There has never been a situation like this in Jewish history. If this isn’t the time to establish alternative rabbinic courts – when will the time come?

You thought that pursuing converts in order to determine whether or not they were really Jewish, and engaging in the question of what exactly was going on in her mind when she immersed in the mikveh, or what religious observances he kept, or did not keep, after the conversion would stop there – with the converts? Wrong.

The new directives published by the Office of the Chief Rabbi of Israel, and approved by the Council of the Chief Rabbinate of Israel, provide a very grim picture. Not just for Alexander, Svetlana and Irus, but for you – Nitzan, Inbal, and Shai. Even for you – Yitzchak, Avrumi and Reizel. For all of us.

According to the new directives, not only is the Marriage Registrar required to send every convert, or every person whose parents were married abroad, to the court for a determination of whether or not s/he’s is a Jew– he can, if he wants, send a person for an official inquiry into one´s Jewishness even if his parents were married by a rabbi who is licensed by Israeli Marriage Registrar.

For the entire article:

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3896261,00.html

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