The High Court of Justice ruled Monday that people who convert to Judaism in Israel through the Reform and Conservative movements must be recognized as Jews for the purpose of the Law of Return, and are thus entitled to Israeli citizenship.

The bombshell decision, which shatters the longstanding Orthodox monopoly on officially recognized conversions in Israel, was the culmination of an appeal process that began more than 15 years ago, involving 12 people in the country who converted to Judaism through non-Orthodox denominations. The justices noted that they had withheld issuing a ruling to allow the state to handle the matter, but the state had failed to do so.

The decision was denounced by right-wing religious politicians and the chief rabbis of Israel.

“What the Reform and Conservatives call ‘conversion’ is nothing but a forgery of Judaism,” Chief Sephardic Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef said in a statement, calling on lawmakers to work for a “quick” legislative fix.

Chief Ashkenazi Rabbi David Lau claimed those who undergo Reform or Conservative conversions “are not Jews.”

“No High Court decision will change this fact,” he was quoted as saying by the Kan public broadcaster.

Rabbi Lau added: “The court is approving the flooding of the State of Israel with immigrants who have nothing to do with Judaism. How is the State of Israel the Jewish state if every gentile can become a citizen?”

Read more at Times of Israel.

{Matzav.com}