Jerusalem Post reports today that Israel's High Court has issued an injunction allowing an immigrant from Italy to remain in the country while the court considers her appeal of denial of her citizenship application under the Law of Return. The woman was converted to Judaism by an Orthodox Rabbinical Court in Rome and then almost immediately came to Israel. Six months ago, she married an Orthodox man (a kashrut supervisor), with approval of Israel's Chief Rabbinate. Now however, Interior Ministry officials refuse to recognize her as Jewish and have denied her citizenship application under their rules that require converts to remain in the community where they converted for at least nine months after conversion. Those who come sooner are required to go through a lengthy process to prove that they are Jewish. The rules were designed to prevent sham conversions by those wishing to emigrate for economic reasons. The rules also work to keep out those converted by the Conservative and Reform movements abroad.
Rabbi Andy Sacks, director of the Masorti (Conservative) Movement's Rabbinical Assembly in Israel, commenting on the case, said: "we are in an absurd situation in which clerks and bureaucrats are getting involved in halachic [Jewish legal] decisions, and they are reaching more stringent conclusions than the rabbis."
