Rav Benyamin Kahane on the "Conversion Law"
(I think its Rav Benyamin Kahane and not Rav Meir Kahane, but need to double check).
First, a little background. The Law of Return gives Israeli citizenship to a Jew (racism!). Twenty years ago, they tried to define in law what is the definition of “Jew”, and they determined: “He who is born from a Jewish mother, or converted”. The only problem is, they forgot to define what ismeant by “converted”. Since then, the religious parties, and rightly so, fought to have the definition changed to “converted according to Jewish law”. After all, the loophole that exists threatens a tragedy to the Jewish People, where, especially overseas, gentiles pass reform or conservative conversions and can then marry in Israel. And so for many years, the religious parties fought for the “Who is a Jew” legislation in the Knesset, but they failed to pass it, partly because they did not deem it important enough to cause a crisis in the coalition or to bring down the government because of it. (In this most recent government, it is Kahalani and his “Third Way” party that votes against it, preventing it from passing.)
Lately, they stopped even trying to pass the law “Who is a Jew”, and started pushing for what is called the “Conversion Law”, which only applies to conversions in ISRAEL, barring reform and conservative conversions. But it does not determine that such false conversions ABROAD are invalid. And so, the major point has been missed, since it is the conversions abroad which constitute the major problem. Worse than this, by settling for the”Conversion Law”, and abandoning the struggle for “Who is a Jew”, in itself scores a victory for reform Jewry. It gives them encouragement, because it means that in a practical sense, the State of Israel recognizes their false conversions in the U.S.. Obviously, none of this is enough for the leftists or the reform and conservative self-haters. They don’t even accept this limited and wimpy “Conversion Law”, as they unleash their “heavy artillery”in the media and judiciary to freeze it!
Such a “compromise” by the religious parties legitimizes the reform and conservative movements, and tells the young Jew it’s not so bad. If they had held strong and stubborn, it could have gotten a message through to the young Jew that if the rabbis are SO against it, maybe it’s something one shouldn’t do. Now they have given it the approval, that such conversions inthe US are “kosher”.
Too bad the religious Jews are not able to understand that the struggle here is for the ENTIRE BALLGAME, and they should never give up on the “Who is a Jew?” law, which is so basic. By doing so, they lend a hand to the huge assimilation and elimination of Judaism in the US. This is the result when instead of going for all the marbles, they try to at least “save something”. It is this attitude that has been destroying Israel on every level. While the leftists go for it all, (for by blurring over what “Jew” is, they accomplish their task of assimilation), the religious are always trying to”save what is left”, and in the end this strategy always backfires…
http://rabbikahane.wordpress.com/2010/09/12/conversion-law/