Israeli Official Quits, Refuses to Register Woman as Jew

JERUSALEM —  Interior Minister Yitzhak Peretz announced his resignation Wednesday rather than submit to a Supreme Court ruling requiring him to register as a Jew a woman converted by a Reform rabbi in the United States.

Peretz’s resignation, which could be rescinded, is the latest twist in a longstanding dispute between Israel’s Orthodox establishment and the more liberal Reform and Conservative movements that are dominant among the 6 million Jews in the United States.

Currently at issue is the case of Shoshana Miller, 43, a former Baptist converted in 1982 in a Reform Jewish ceremony in Colorado Springs, Colo. She immigrated in 1985 and sought Israeli citizenship under the Law of Return, which guarantees such status to any Jew who requests it.

But Interior Minister Peretz, a member of the ultra-Orthodox Shas political party, said that Miller’s identity documents must be stamped with the word convert as a warning that her conversion might be considered invalid under Orthodox Jewish law.

Miller challenged the ruling, and on Dec. 2 the Israeli Supreme Court decided in her favor. The court ordered Peretz to issue her identity documents without any special notation.

‘False Conversions’

“I have decided to resign so as not to register Shoshana Miller as demanded by the Supreme Court,” Peretz said in a letter of resignation he read to the Israeli Parliament. “I will never give my hand to false conversions of Jews.”

Other members of the ruling coalition sought immediately to dissuade Peretz, whose resignation under Israeli procedure will become effective 48 hours after it is presented to the Cabinet. The next regular Cabinet meeting is scheduled for Sunday.

Even if the resignation goes through, it is not expected to threaten the government. The Shas party controls only four of the 120 seats in the Knesset, or Parliament, and Israel radio reported that the party will stay in the ruling coalition even if it loses the Interior portfolio.

Peretz has indicated that he will reconsider his decision if he is assured that the Knesset will enact an often-defeated measure known as the “Who-is-a-Jew Law” that would specifically reject Reform or Conservative conversions.

‘Day of Rejoicing’

Meir Azuri, secretary of the tiny Reform movement in Israel, said Peretz’s resignation constituted “a day of rejoicing for Israeli democracy.”

“A minister who cannot carry out the verdicts of the Supreme Court must resign,” Azuri said.