Israel considers mass religious conversion to improve image  

With Israel’s image taking a battering around the world, one of its ministries has set its sights on wooing millions of “potential Jews” in an effort to improve what the general public think about the Zionist state. However, the proposal has raised strong feelings about the country’s Jewish identity and future.

According to Haaretz, the Ministry for the Diaspora has recommended a strategic plan for reaching out to 60 million people across the globe who have an “affinity” to Judaism or Israel. The plan would see many converted to the Jewish faith and being introduced to Jewish and Israeli Studies courses. The public relations project also considered a framework for them to make Aliyah, the “return” to Israel.

Concerns raised in the plan, which was handed to the government last weekend, coincide with Israel’s 70th anniversary and questions about its future. Earlier in the week, an Israeli academic said that the “country was committing suicide” because of what many say is its demographic time bomb. A group of former Mossad spies also described Israel as being in a “critical medical state”.

The strategic plan appears to be an attempt to address the fact that the population of Palestinians and Jews in historic Palestine is now more or less the same.

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The plan, reported Haaretz, will identify those who have certain links to Judaism but are not currently eligible for immigration under Israel’s Law of Return. They and their communities will then study Judaism, Hebrew language and Jewish and Israeli culture. A new framework for bringing appropriate individuals, groups and entire communities to Israel for conversion will be established.

Rabbi Uri Sherki, who appeared before the committee which made the recommendation, said that the rules of conversion change from generation to generation. He admitted that some of those who have been granted Israeli citizenship under the Law of Return were not Jews to begin with.

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Religious Zionist rabbis, however, have denounced the plan, arguing that Jews are not missionaries. “According to Jewish law, Judaism has no interest in influencing someone to convert. There’s no such thing,” Rabbi Dov Lior told Haaretz. “If someone comes to convert, then it’s a good deed to bring them closer. But to go out and be a missionary? To influence someone? That’s not the way of Judaism.”

Judaisation of Jerusalem – Cartoon [Sabaaneh/MiddleEastMonitor]