Who is a Jew? It\u2019s an age-old inquiry, one that has for decades (if not centuries) provoked debate, discussion and too many punch lines to count \u201d\u201d all inspired by what many assumed was the question\u2019s essential unanswerability. But if developments this week are any indication, the Israeli parliament, the Knesset, might soon offer an official, surprising answer: almost no one.<\/p>\n
On Monday, a Knesset committee approved a bill sponsored by David Rotem, a member of the nationalist Yisrael Beiteinu party, that would give the Orthodox rabbinate control of all conversions in Israel. If passed, this legislation would place authority over all Jewish births, marriages and deaths \u201d\u201d and, through them, the fundamental questions of Jewish identity \u201d\u201d in the hands of a small group of ultra-Orthodox, or Haredi, rabbis.<\/p>\n
The move has set in motion a sectarian battle that is not only dividing Israeli society but threatening to sever the vital connection between Israel and the American Jewish diaspora.<\/p>\n