The public debate on the issue of conversion is characterized, as is customary here, by the flourishing of slogans and the preoccupation with trifles, instead of the essence of things. In the background stands the call to make it easier for conversion seekers. Is the intention to remove bureaucratic barriers or to increase manpower? If that were the problem, no one would oppose this demand. But behind the beautiful words lies a demand to make conversion a streamlined and easy process, and this is no longer a technical matter but a substantive one.
Anyone who talks about wholesale conversion of hundreds of thousands – either has no idea what true conversion is, or he does know and intends to empty the concept of conversion of its contents and turn it into a technical-registered process, like issuing a passport or joining a membership club. True conversion is an internal process, in which a person decides to join the people of Israel, to the eternal covenant that the God of Israel made with us, and to the obligations that this covenant imposes on us. This cannot happen wholesale.
Harm to converts
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Breaking through the barriers of conversion will first and foremost harm the converts themselves, and especially those whose intentions are sincere and genuine. In good faith, they will go through the expedited process, assuming that it is indeed a conversion according to the law, and only after a while will they realize that these 'conversions' are not acceptable to broad sections of the people.
The conversion courts are well aware of this phenomenon. People who have undergone all sorts of such 'conversions' discover to their dismay that they have in fact been deceived and that these 'conversions' are worthless, and they come and ask to convert again, as is customary. But as the phenomenon of wholesale 'conversions' expands, the entire concept of 'conversion' will be called into question, and large sections of the public will begin to ask the converts what kind of conversion they have undergone and whether it is indeed a valid and serious conversion.
It is also worth remembering that a seemingly small and innocent breach can turn into a flood. The issue of conversion is clear proof of this. At the time, in 1970, when the "Who is a Jew" law was enacted, some believed that this was an achievement. Although the word "properly" ("who converted properly") was omitted from the wording of the law, for the first time it was written in the law book that "a Jew is someone who was born to a Jewish mother or who converted.".
Only over the years have we all realized that this loophole in the law was exploited by the court to recognize 'conversions' who are not according to Halacha, and thus Interior Ministry officials were obliged to register complete Gentiles as Jews. The only remaining dam is the conversion system in the country, which is entrusted to the Rabbinate. If it too is breached, even by a small crack, the results could be disastrous.
Worrying numbers
The issue of conversion deals with our very being and identity. We can argue about many things, but in the end we say the sentence "We are all Jews." Breaking into the topic of conversion may put this statement in great question. Will we all become Jews? Will anyone whom the State of Israel registers as a Jew actually be a Jew?
It is precisely the talk about hundreds of thousands expecting to convert that is worrying. There are no hundreds of thousands who really want to convert. Perhaps they want a stamp, to make life easier for them in the land. They have no intention of joining the eternal covenant of the Jewish people, with all that this implies. It is not right to solve their problems by creating a sevenfold more serious problem of the destruction of Jewish identity.
