any position regarding the validity of Conservative or Reform conversions.

The majority's decision was also based on another important precedent, the Shas decision. In Shas, the Court held that the Registrar must register immigrants to Israel as Jews if they were converted in a Jewish community abroad prior to their immigration to Israel, so long as that conversion was recognized as valid in the community in which it was performed.

The Court considered not only the case of first-time registrants, but also instances in which a resident who is registered as a non-Jew wishes to change his or her status, based on a conversion. Under the Registration Act, such an applicant must submit an official document, such as a declarative judgment from a district court, verifying the change...

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