The dust will soon settle after the Democratic Party’s devastating losses in the recent US elections and as the picture comes into focus everyone will assess the damage from their own vantage point. But we the chareidi Jews of the world will remain with our own problems and particularly with the problem.

President Obama made an important statement when he said that apparently it isn’t enough just to accomplish; one also has to explain to the people what has been accomplished and how. Our askanim across the ocean would do well to adopt this as a motto for themselves. The president’s enemies and the political commentators will interpret the Democratic downfall according to their worldview. Israel too will assess whether the change is detrimental to its interests.

But on both sides of the ocean we face a bigger more existential question — that of assimilation in general and particularly the attempts to force the leaders of the Torah world to accept instant invalid conversions in particular. A compromise was reached regarding the conversion process in Eretz Yisrael whereas conversions would remain in the exclusive domain of the Chief Rabbinate and the Rabbinate would in turn agree to set up more conversion batei din — and although it was not a perfect agreement the Chief Rabbinate as well as chareidi MKs were prepared to ratify it due to the urgency of the situation. In the end the plan was shelved because of pressure on Prime Minister Netanyahu by the American Reform movement. A suit for official recognition of Reform conversions now awaits a decision from Israel’s Supreme Court.

And pressure on the Rabbinate is increasing.

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Here is some of last week’s latest news:

The Jewish Agency suddenly discovered that assimilation is running rampant. What an electrifying discovery. And the Jewish Agency has announced that it’s interested in the continued existence of the Jewish People and must do something about this worrying trend. Israel’s daily paper Maariv devoted almost an entire issue to alerting the nation to the plague of assimilation the “silent Holocaust.”

Of course several writers found someone to blame for the fact that our nation is shrinking due to intermarriage — the chareidi rabbis naturally. And why? Because “the fanatics” as one esteemed writer refers to the chareidim are standing in the way of mass conversion of all those non-Jewish spouses. If only they would be more lenient on conversion then we’d be able to point to the statistics and say that the Jewish Nation isn’t shrinking but is actually growing. The writer therefore calls for wresting giyur out of the hands of the fanatic rabbis and looking for more easygoing types to handle these matters. That way we can add hundreds of thousands of Jews to our dwindling ranks in one fell swoop.  

Another veteran Israeli journalist came up with a similar solution. His suggestion was that conversion could also be used to solve the problem of children of foreign workers who are living in Israel illegally and now face possible deportation. “Let’s convert them” he penned.

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One reads the words listens to the voices considers the claims the incitement the relentless attacks on the rabbinical establishment that won’t yield on the subject of conversion — and gets a message that the rabbis are unfeeling and intransigent. But what kind of conversion is this? In the eyes of those protesting for leniency a Ukrainian youth of pure Cossack blood who landed in Israel from the banks of the Dnieper and serves in the army (usually in a combat unit) who speaks Hebrew takes part in Israeli life and feels like an Israeli has done enough to be considered a Jew.

Actually why in this worldview is any kind of conversion — Reform or Conservative — even necessary? They look at themselves and they feel perfectly justified. “I’m a secular Israeli I don’t keep a single mitzvah from the Torah and I’m still considered a Jew according to halachah. So why shouldn’t a Ukrainian IDF soldier a child of foreign workers and a girl who came from America and even had a Reform conversion who are living as Israelis be considered Jewish just as I am? Why should they have to keep mitzvos? They’re adhering to the Zionist creed speaking Hebrew and serving in the IDF.”

This argument has its logic. But if this is their approach then why do they insist on conversion? Why do they push so unrelentingly so brutally for a little more flexibility on the part of the halachah? Why do they demand that the rabbis wink at conversions undertaken as a mere matter of form? Why do they even care whether we “fanatics” recognize these people as Jews or not? Why don’t they bypass the Rabbinate and make a law stating that the individuals in question are considered Jews by secular criteria (living in Israel speaking the language and serving in the army)?

That way even a Reform conversion would be unnecessary. And if the chief rabbi the “fanatics” or the benighted denizens of Bnei Brak don’t agree so what? Does a secular Jew place any importance on what a rabbi in Bnei Brak says regarding any other mitzvah? In this case too why not just declare that they as the majority will not abide by the rabbis’ decisions? But instead of acting according to their own rules of  logic they engage in attacks on the rabbinical establishment and search desperately for rabbis who will be lenient for quick conversions? Why do they need a halachic seal of approval to integrate non-Jews into Israeli society? Wouldn’t it be sufficient to naturalize them as Israeli citizens as in any Western country? After all this concept of giyur exists in no other country’s legal system.

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Perhaps an understanding might be suggested by the following anecdote:

Years ago under one of Ben-Gurion’s governments a bitter argument regarding marriage and divorce legislation broke out at a cabinet meeting. Minister Bar Yehudah of the Labor alliance was coarsely outspoken in his attack on religious people in general. Minister Chaim Moshe Shapiro of the Hapoel HaMizrachi party beginning to feel stifled in that hostile atmosphere stood up and said “Gentleman you are making a fundamental error. We insist on the marriage and divorce law in order to preserve the unity of the people who dwell in Zion. We religious Jews aren’t the ones who need it. And if this is the sort of argument there’s going to be on the subject then we religious Jews and of course the chareidim will establish separate communities and keep genealogical records and you can do as you wish.”

According to the source of this story the strident tone of the argument was immediately lowered. At the end of the meeting Minister Alon went up to Shapiro and said to him “This is a loaded issue and I don’t know what will be decided but I want my daughter to get married by a rabbi.”

In other words some latent concealed fiber in the heart of the average secular Jew tells him not to stretch the rope so far that it breaks. Even on this tense subject of conversion he feels the need of some kind of rabbinical “hechsher” to certify that a non-Jew has become a Jew. The rabbi can be anyone even a clown in rabbinical garb who performs the conversion against all the principles of halachah as long as he makes an official pronouncement that the “convert” is now “Jewish.” This is why the American Reform movement is fighting for recognition in Israel of their “conversions.” (One Reform leader in the US whose sons are married to non-Jewish women who had instant conversions cannot accept the fact that his grandchildren are not considered Jews by the State of Israel.)

Some deeply-concealed fiber in their heart some still-smoldering ember in their conscience that refuses to die will not allow them to cut themselves off completely. So even as they cause suffering and torment with their unrestrained demands that we compromise on conversion to the point that it becomes devoid of halachic content perhaps this is actually a hope — that every Jew no matter how far away doesn’t really want to cut the cord.