Ariana Melamed. 'More than one way to be Jewish'
Photo: Gabi Menashe
End of military conversion course
Photo: Eli Elgarat
Want to convert? Do it on your own time
Education Corps responsible for classes, IDF supplies instructors, and one can complete conversion process during military service. Ariana Melamed believes issue of soldiers' conversion is not military's business, unless one is referring to Saudi Arabian or Iranian military
Imagine the following situation: A young man comes to the enlistment office, and before being sent to the Bedouin trackers unit, he tells the military functionary in front of him that he has a problem – he isn't exactly Muslim according to religious law and is not properly familiar with his religion's basics and therefore would like to convert to Islam.
No problem, says the functionary. For precisely this reason, the school for Islamic studies was opening in a pastoral youth village in the Galilee with the full backing of the military, he tells him. Instructors in uniform will teach him and mentor him through the entire blessed process of converting to Islam, including the painful circumcision. And the best part – the time spent studying will be considered as part of his military service. Here, take a brochure. It's all laid out here, he tells him.
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At the beginning of last week, an entirely similar situation could be witnessed when the defense minister visited the army's conversion course and got a little tripped up as to Jewish law's stance on the voices of women, naked or not. The wrath of one of the course participants was immediately laid upon him as he claimed that the minister does not understand anything about halacha, which is very true in my opinion.
This again raises the question – should the military be a conversion agent for those seeking to convert to Judaism during their military service?
What's the IDF got to do with the conversion process?
The state conversion process that was established in the previous decade is intended to solve the issue of conversion of new immigrants. The Education Corps is responsible for the classes while the IDF provides instructors, soldiers in uniform, for Jewish history, Zionism, kashrut and Shabbat. Participation in the process is entirely voluntary and studies can be continued throughout one's military service until the conversion process is completed. Great, right? Well, not entirely.
Because the IDF is a governmental arm of the State that still has, at least on paper, freedom of religion and thought as part of its basic human liberties. Such freedom necessitates equal and non-discriminatory treatment of every person's religion, or lack of religion, whatever it may be. In the state conversion process, as one can see, this equality is not protected at all.
The conversion process is an Orthodox institution in every aspect, whose purpose is to teach people to convert according to one approach in Judaism, which does not necessarily represent the lifestyle of the majority of Jews in the world or in Israel. One can become a kosher Jew – but not the kind accepted by the Interior Ministry – through Conservative or Reform conversion as well. It is possible, but not desirable in the eyes of the system that promotes unity of opinion instead of pluralism of thought. On the way to solving a real problem faced by many recruits, the system imposes on them a one-and-only way of experiencing their new, long-awaited religion.
What does the IDF have to do with all this? Is the compulsory service law, which grants the IDF the jurisdiction to operate and recruit people, not meant to distinguish between potential recruits on the basis of their religion, excluding the accepted service exemption granted to Arab Israelis, yeshiva students, and religious girls? Every citizen or permanent resident in Israel is a candidate for recruitment, and non-Jewish immigrants who came here under the Law of Return are included.
If the IDF wished to allow them to experience a sense of closeness to the religion they so seek, it would be best if it would remove the whole issue from within its bounds and responsibility by declaring – you want to convert? Fine. Do so on your own time, each person according to his desire and on the path that he chooses. Do you want a conversion leave in order to undergo the necessary studies? This can be positively considered without being drawn into the type of conversion you are undergoing, which truly is no business of the military – unless, of course, we're talking about the Iranian military. Or the Saudi Arabian military.
Unnecessary ingratiation
But the IDF decision was the opposite: an unequivocal statement as to what kind of conversion is "right" by adopting this one and only kind of conversion, which it follows to the letter of the law. This does not only violate the freedom of thought of the conversion candidates, it is also an unnecessary ingratiation to the Orthodoxy that is growing more and more extreme, even to the point of not recognizing this very same military conversion itself.The arguments over recognition of the state conversion process did not pass over military conversion. If you ask rabbis such as Zalman Melamed (no relation to the author), they would tell you they prefer to avoid the military's conversion, saying it is "superficial" and "not for the intended purpose."
In light of the continuing radicalization of the haredi scholars towards their various denominations, it can still be expected that massive doubts will be cast on the Jewishness of those who underwent conversion in the military, with all the accompanying pain and suffering. Here is another good reason to rethink the close relationship between the military and the one-style conversion it offers and whether it needs to offer soldiers such uniform religious services.
As for the boy who wants to be Sunni, the hypothetical situation outlined at the beginning of this article – it is clear to everyone that he cannot learn the fundamentals of his religion in a military framework on the military's dime, right? The option exists only for those who want to be Jews, and only for those the IDF wants, for some reason, to follow the Orthodox path.
It still remains to be clarified how this makes them better fighters, citizens, and people.
