More than 50% of former Soviet Union conversion candidates drop out, according to Israel Democracy Institute report.
Over half of the conversion candidates from the former Soviet Union drop out before finishing the process, according to a report on the efficacy of the state conversion system.
The report, which the Israel Democracy Institute released Monday, illustrates what the authors have described as a “depressing” picture of conversion policy over the last two decades.
According to research by the IDI’s Dr. Netanel Fisher, some 80,000 people have converted to Judaism through the state conversion system since it was established in 1995. Of those, some 45,000 converts were from the Ethiopian sector – specifically the Falash Mura, who were required to undergo conversion upon entering Israel.
One of the particularly contentious conversion issues in the country relates to non-Jewish Israelis from the former Soviet Union, who number about 330,000 today.
Approximately 24,000 converts through the state system were from the FSU immigrant community – just 7 percent of the non-Jewish immigrants from that region.
Since 2000, that sector has had an average conversion rate of 1,800 people a year.
However, the IDI’s research also showed that the number of non-Jewish FSU immigrants embarking on the state conversion process was higher than the number of those successfully converting.
While those 24,000 completed the process, another 25,000 were accepted into and started the conversion course but eventually left.
Fisher attributed this high dropout rate to a lack of institutional support for conversion candidates throughout the process, along with various financial costs and logistical details such as long traveling distances to conversion classes for some candidates.
Some of the leading figures in the mainstream national-religious community seek to increase the conversion rates among non-Jewish FSU immigrants to prevent future interfaith marriages between them (or their children) and Jewish Israelis. To achieve that goal, these leaders have proposed liberalizing and decentralizing the state conversion system, within an Orthodox framework.
At the same time, more hardline national- religious leaders, along with the haredi rabbinic leadership, strongly oppose such measures. The haredi political parties have insisted, as part of their conditions for entering the coalition, that a recent measure the last Knesset approved to decentralize the conversion courts be repealed.
While about 25% of FSU immigrants express interest in converting, only 7% actually do so. According to Fisher, these statistics demonstrate the possibility of greatly increasing the number of those converting.
“Advancing the conversion of immigrants from the former Soviet Union has failed so far, because the national effort and the public discourse has focused on the politicization of the issue, while the path to success is really from the bottom upward,” he said. “That means… harnessing civil society into supporting converts, encouraging educational bodies to help open conversion classes, recruiting [conversion] candidates and elevating the issue on the list of priorities of communal leaders, who are not doing enough to change the situation.”
His findings indicated that although the national-religious sector views the issue as urgent, only 50 percent of that community is in favor of adopting a lenient approach within Jewish law toward converts from the former Soviet Union.
At the same time, he found, the vast majority of secular Israelis see the issue as important, want their children to find a Jewish partner, and support a lenient path to conversion for such people.
Fisher’s research also showed, however, that intermarriage between Jews and non-Jewish FSU immigrants currently accounts for 7%-8% of Israeli marriages every year. He said that the “guarantee of continued demographic existence of the Jewish people” could be in doubt if this trend is not addressed.
“The challenge of conversion in Israel is a challenge of historic proportions, and the way forward [entails] a variety of difficulties,” said Fisher. “The combination of a vision that can be implemented, appropriate leadership, allocation of resources, and recruiting civil society to the process could bring about a change that would guarantee the cohesion of Jewish society in Israel and the continued existence of Israel as a Jewish and democratic state.”
bondmanp Said:
It appears that you like to play fast and loose with the truth… that you seek to spread libel. From where did you learn these propaganda tactics of fabricating words to put in the mouths of others? Prove your commentbondmanp Said:
never mentioned their love or feelings, only their factual behavior.
bondmanp Said:
neither of us know that.. I only speak to their behavior, not to their claims or their PR image.
bondmanp Said:
that would be nice, to return to eretz yisroel rather than cling to galut’s image of Jews.
bondmanp Said:
more baloney… you dont like questioning “authority” becuase you are not even interested in what your authorities have written. You should read Rambam, Torah, etc rather than exhorting others.
I have never purported ot answers but have raised relvant qquestions to an important issue which i now see has been raised by many others. I ask questions looking for rreal answers and not attmpts to reconcile dogmas. You ask no questions and appear to have little interest in the authorities you claim to follow.
bondmanp Said:
rubbish, I made no conclusions, I ask questions and those questions are very basic and simple and still have gone unanswered. The fact that you have no interest in how past and current sages come to their conclusions is simply a demonstration of disinterest in the substance of those determinations.
bondmanp Said:
You could not even remember this weekends scholarly discussion of Torah scholars or what rambam said on the subject.
yes, hubris indeed
@ bondmanp:
Are you aware that the state of Israel has for a long time accepted Jews who are converts from Reform and Conservative Rabbis in the USA?
However the rabbis in Israel want a monopoly on the business of religion so Reform and Conservative Rabbis are not official rabbis. To me it is inconsistent that conversions from these Rabbis are okay if they are American but not Israeli.
It is says Jewish on their Israeli ID card and not Reformed Jew or Conservative Jew. Also when the army drafts them or their Jewish children they do ask how they became Jews.
This is a very devise affair that some Jews feel they are better or more Jewish than other Jews. Then that is how religions maintain control and power over people. Unfortunately that is also true in Judaism.
bondmanp Said:
I was being facetious about the hechsher 🙂
Dont you wonder at all that their could be such an incredibly opposite conclusions from those who recive a similar training to that which you trust… do you ever think that they might be right, since you do not appear to do any thinking on these matters yourself,…. if you were brought up as an NK you would likely be following their rulings today. How odd that such confusion can reign over the same words and it is decided by men. a kind of tower of Babel.
bondmanp Said:
what is the basis for your decision, since you do not look into the quality of their decisions. I assume it is based on whether they agree with your beleifs and feelings in general.
bondmanp Said:
Why are yo being dishonest and misrepresenting my words, is this part of your belief system? I did not disrespect the rabbi, which should be obvious, but the motives and MO of those purporting to be pious Jews who attended the funeral and who’s only enthusiasm and protest has been for their perks. I merely commented on their numbers and the potential power it represents and the incredible bankruptcy in spirit which accompanies that power. Are you not surprised that this self touting piety can only gather for a funeral(likely as a demonstration to show their piety) or to complain about their perks?
bondmanp Said:
but demonstrably very few of those 950k or the tens of thousands that just recently protested for their perks. Unlike you, I find it scandalous, and extremely disappointing, that any group of Jews numbering 950k living in Israel and purporting to be pious cannot send more than a couple of Glicks to demand YS and the MOunt.
bondmanp Said:
baloney, those 950k could change the whole paradigm n Israel which seeks to give away eretz yisroel, they who purport and pretend to be pious do nothing for either. those in YS are but a small portion of religious zionists compared with the rest.
THE 950K COULD SAVE YS
I am appalled 🙁
bondmanp Said:
I agree that your beleifs are equally legitimate but your criteria fact of longer track record of survival would tend to say that christianity trumps judaism, which is similar to their argument. Record of survival is irrelevant to authenticity, it may be simply a matter of political savvy. Jewish leaders under the romans and the galut were subject to the approval of the goyim govs. therefore, it is not impossible that they accomodated their decisions to maintain the approval, human nature is reliable.