Nativ – the National Center for Identity and Conversion () is a program of the

Jewish Agency The Jewish Agency for Israel (), formerly known as the Jewish Agency for Palestine, is the largest Jewish non-profit organization in the world. It was established in 1929 as the operative branch of the World Zionist Organization (WZO). As an ...

that helps Israeli Defense Forces soldiers convert to Judaism.

History

During the 1990s post-Soviet aliyah, about a million immigrants came to Israel from the

former Soviet Union The post-Soviet states, also referred to as the former Soviet Union or the former Soviet republics, are the independent sovereign states that emerged/re-emerged from the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. Prior to their independence, they ...

. About one third, or 300,000, had Jewish family members but were not recognized as Jews under

Jewish law ''Halakha'' ( ; , ), also transliterated as ''halacha'', ''halakhah'', and ''halocho'' ( ), is the collective body of Jewish religious laws that are derived from the Written and Oral Torah. ''Halakha'' is based on biblical commandments ('' mit ...

. The process of

conversion to Judaism Conversion to Judaism ( or ) is the process by which non-Jews adopt the Jewish religion and become members of the Jewish ethnoreligious community. It thus resembles both conversion to other religions and naturalization. "Thus, by convertin ...

in Israel is overseen by the Orthodox Chief Rabbinate, which requires strict adherence to Jewish law by prospective converts, while most Jewish Israelis are not observant. The Nativ program's first course was inaugurated in 2001 to deal with this problem. It is the only recognized conversion option that is not run by the Chief Rabbinate; instead, it is run by rabbis in the Military Rabbinate. According to a 2019 survey, 71% of Israelis approve of the program, while 52% want to make conversion easier. Despite its popularity, the program has suffered repeated budget crises because the government has not allocated money for it. By 2019, more than 10,000 soldiers had converted via the program.

References

{{Reflist Conversion to Judaism Jewish Agency for Israel