Our efforts to build a lasting and meaningful Reform movement in Israel are paying off. The Israeli Supreme court issued a landmark ruling yesterday that requires the state to provide equal funding to Reform and Conservative conversion classes. Anat Hoffman, Executive Director of the Israeli Religious Action Center explained the importance of this ruling in her recent letter to all ARZA members:

The case itself may seem inconsequential but the implications
are huge. This is the first time that the Court has declared that government
funding must be provided to non-Orthodox Jewish religious services in
Israel.
The verdict was amazing, going well beyond the issue of
funding for conversion classes, and addressing the core issue of religious
freedom in Israel. The three judge panel, including Chief Justice Dorit
Beinisch, found the State’s practice of favoring only one Jewish stream
discriminatory and contradictory to the their responsibility to ensure freedom
of religion, ruling “The duty of the State to pluralism is not only a passive
duty, but an active one as well.” They also sited their previous ruling (Naamat
and IRAC in 2002) that “Jews in Israel cannot be seen as only one
religious sect.”

I know this sounds crazy, but Israel has a terrible record on religious freedom for Jews. While it remains an open and active refuge for Jews all over the world, it does not have a separation of "church" and state. Orthodox Jews find their conversions questioned and their status as Jews closely scrutinized, non-Orthodox Jews can not find necessary religious services like marriage, burial, or divorce in their own denominations. It's ironic and sad but part of the today's Zionist enterprise must be to build Jewish pluralism just as we once built the now-thriving towns and economy. This is an important early step. Keep up your support for ARZA, the IMPJ and pluralistic democracy in Israel.