Conversion crisis: Israeli gov't circumcision tender delay leaves 100 in 'torture'

A hundred converts, including soldiers and immigrants, are stuck in 'torture' unable to finish their conversion to Judaism because of delays in the awarding of tenders for circumcision, the Knesset Committee for Immigration, Absorption and Diaspora Affairs alerted on Wednesday.

Only seven medical circumcisions had been performed since April 2023, according to data presented to the committee. Of the 100 converts in religious limbo, fifty-five are members of the Ethiopian community. IDF conversion court head Lt.-Col. Kobi Gridish said that ten of the waiting converts were mandatory or reserve service soldiers.

"Of those waiting, eight people will have circumcisions during the month of March," Gridish said at the meeting. "We will help mandatory and reserve service soldiers get circumcisions and are working in full cooperation with the Conversion Authority."

Committee Chairman and Yisrael Beytenu MK Oded Forer said that the problem lay with the publication of tenders for the expensive medical procedure, which is only expected in two months. The Committee spokesperson said that because of the price differential between private and government medical facility costs, government hospitals were refusing to perform the procedure at a low cost. A circumcision at a governmental medical center was estimated to be about NIS 3,000 per procedure, while in the private sector, it could cost as much as NIS 10,000. Forer demanded that the state provide a temporary solution for the stall.

"If the state of Israel fails to bring immediate solutions for circumcisions for converts, the entire conversion process should be transferred to private hands," said Forer. "No government office is taking responsibility for this failure, and without a minister taking up the issue, the conversion crisis will not end."

MK Elazar Stern: I don't understand how the Conversion Authority head sleeps at night

Yesh Atid MK Elazar Stern said that he couldn't understand how the Conversion Authority director "succeeds in sleeping at night when there are a hundred people waiting for circumcisions to finish the conversion process."  

Ahead of the Wednesday meeting, the Prime Minister Office's Conversion Authority updated that it had received permission from the Tenders Committee to advance the tender's issuance.

A senior official for the Conversion Authority, Yisrael Vanachutzker, said that they were at the last stages before the publication of the tender, and that until the process was complete, converts should file form 17 to the Health Ministry. Vanachutzker said the PMO had explored all options but advancing the tender was the only move forward. He also indicated that the PMO was waiting for the tender budget from the Finance Ministry.

Doria Ganot, a representative from the Finance Ministry's budget department, said that there was no interest in the budget for financing circumcisions to lead to a blockage for the tender's publication and that they would do everything to hasten the process.

"As far as we're concerned, the tender can be released immediately," said Ganot.

Rabbi Dr. Shaul Farber, head of ITIM: Resources and Advocacy for Jewish Life, criticized the stalling of circumcisions.

"I don't know how a government body allows itself to torture converts interested in joining the Jewish people. We need to sit all the relevant ministers together in a room so we can create a solution to the issue as soon as possible."

Forer called for a follow-up hearing as soon as possible. The chairman said that the PMO director, PMO legal adviser, and the Justice Ministry should be invited.

Ritual circumcisions, the removal of a man's foreskin, are an essential part of the induction into the Jewish people. Most Jewish babies have their foreskins removed in a ceremony eight days after birth.