Russian immigrants in Israel: Conversion - or genocide?

Haaretz 03:03 08/04/2008
By Lily Galili

Meet Rabbi Naftali Schreiber, an activist from Rabbis Against Conversion. He is a fairly familiar figure among the Russian-speaking public; to veteran Israelis, he is a foreigner. Forget everything you knew about rabbis and conversion: He is not Rabbi Druckman, lenient when it comes to conversion for nationalist reasons; he is not one of those rabbis who makes things difficult in the name of stringent halakha. He is simply opposed to the conversion system for immigrants from the former Soviet Union. As for his motives, it depends who you ask. Some suspect he is serving foreign interests; Schreiber himself is convinced he is preserving Israel while representing a liberal agenda of freedom of choice.

This combination did not really impress MK Marina Solodkin. Ten days ago, she organized a conference, "Conversion in Israel: Religion, politics and society," in the Knesset. Some 40 people attended the discussion, which was in Russian. Solodkin was assured that an Orthodox rabbi also would show up. She certainly did not expect Schreiber. Truth be told, she also was not expecting Anatoly Garasimov, the chairman of the Association of Ethnic Russians (Pravoslavic Russians) in Israel.

For years, Garasimov has been fighting for his community, and now is waging a relentless battle against the campaign to convert immigrants. This transforms him into an ally and true friend of Schreiber. Garasimov was not a welcome guest at the gathering, and when they refused to give him the floor, he took it anyway. Among other things, he accused Israel of conducting a "spiritual genocide" against the ethnic Russians who came here legally (he himself is married to a Jewish woman - L.G.).

Even if this statement seems natural to you, try to find a good definition for Rabbi Schreiber's positions. Schreiber, 30, immigrated to Israel 16 years ago and studied at Chabad yeshivas here. He no longer is a Chabad member, nor is he employed by the rabbinic establishment. A lot of his time is devoted to missionary activity - saving souls from conversion. Among other efforts, his organization distributed a sticker with the Russian flag and the caption: "Conversion is spitting in the face of Mother."

"This sticker is an intentional provocation," says Schreiber, who has not only a set ideology, but also an open fondness for provocation. Following are a few selections from his conversation with Haaretz: "Mass conversion programs for immigrants are a form of collective rape. True, there is no inquisition here, but there is brainwashing. It's like resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict by converting the Arabs; instead of transfer, conversion. The Russians see the whole thing as a serious affront, and the affront they endure here makes it to Russia, too. There have been calls there to use the same criteria accepted here, and to make Jews' advancement conditional on conversion to Catholicism. "They say I serve foreign interests? That only flatters me. In this case, our national interest coincides with the spirit of the halakha and the liberal approach. Yes, I really think the IDF should have a Pravoslavic priest appointed alongside the chief military chaplain; every army in the world has diverse religious services. Let me tell you a story: Three months ago, the first military rabbi was appointed in Russia. As a result, the church in Moscow sent an emissary to Israel to look into the parallel position in the IDF. Of course, they turned him down. But I think the time really has come to formalize this position and stop the conversion of IDF soldiers. After all, it's clear that the groups of young neo-Nazis are a result of the conversion system ... but the big problem is, of course, the girls, who are the primary target audience. We appeal to them in ads on our site or in the Russian media, but also approach them in person in order to prevent the mistake ... in personal conversations, there is almost a 100-percent success rate.

"This entire conversion system is one giant fraud ... to the victims, they stress primarily that this will strengthen their ties to the state, and they don't always realize that when converting, they are also abandoning Jesus ... in our assessment, we prevented hundreds of conversions. We came to the Knesset session in order to balance the voices of Solodkin and [MK Avigdor] Lieberman and to counter the argument that the Russians want to convert and only the rabbis are preventing them. It's exactly the opposite: The rabbis are collaborators, and the Russians are not coming to convert because they simply don't want to."

Following the Knesset session, Solodkin drafted a letter to Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, asking Olmert to approve the decisions made in the session. In the end of the letter, the MK told the prime minister about what happened behind closed doors during the Russian-language gathering. "The meeting was attended by a group of people who serve the interests of certain circles in Russia, that are hostile to the State of Israel," she wrote. "I approached the Knesset guard and asked that they be barred entry to the Knesset building." Schreiber is very amused by the whole thing.