Mikva law approved by Knesset

Sharansky: ‘Bill unfortunate’

United Torah Judaism’s highly contentious mikva bill, which will ban the Reform and Masorti (Conservative) movements from using public mikvaot for conversion ceremonies, was passed into law on Monday night.

In the last few weeks, some of the most senior leaders of Diaspora Jewry in the US strongly urged Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to halt the legislation, due to the damage it could cause to Israel-Diaspora relations.

The law, introduced by senior UTJ MK Moshe Gafni, will allow local rabbinates, which run public mikvaot, to determine which organizations or government bodies it will permit to use its facilities.

This formulation avoided explicitly discriminatory language in the bill itself, but will certainly lead to discrimination against Reform and Masorti converts wishing to use public mikvaot for their conversion ceremonies.

The law was first introduced by Gafni to circumvent a decision by the Supreme Court in February which ruled that the practice of a local rabbinate in Beersheba banning the progressive Jewish denominations from using its mikvaot for conversion ceremonies was discriminatory and illegal.

Jewish Agency Chairman Natan Sharansky reacted to the bill saying, “This bill, which offers no solution to the non-Orthodox denominations, circumvents the rulings of the High Court of Justice. It is unfortunate that the bill passed before such a solution was ensured.”

In order to avoid the opposition of the attorney-general to the new law, the government has proposed that the Jewish Agency build up to four mikvaot for the use of the progressive movements in Israel.

The Reform and Masorti movements have said they would strongly object to the proposal if the money for the new mikvaot comes from the core Jewish Agency budget, as seems likely, and not from the government. The core Jewish Agency budget is funded exclusively by Diaspora Jewry, in particular by the Jewish Federations of North America.

The progressive movements have argued that it would be unacceptable for Diaspora Jewry to be forced to pay for the new mikvaot, given that they are to replace the public, state-funded mikvaot the UTJ’s bill bans them from using. The Jerusalem Post has learned that the Prime Minister’s Office is now looking to secure government funds for the project.

The progressive movements also seek government funding for the maintenance of the new mikvaot and the salaries of staff required to operate them, as received for public mikvaot, although the government has not contacted the Reform and Masorti movements directly on its proposal. The new law comes into effect nine months from the day it was passed, to allow time to build the new mikvaot for the non-Orthodox groups, which have expressed skepticism that these facilities will be built on such short notice.•