TEL AVIV (JTA)–Israel’s Supreme Court ruled that the state must recognize Orthodox conversions performed in Israel outside the authority of the Chief Rabbinate. The ruling Thursday means any non-citizen who converts in a private Israeli Orthodox conversion court can gain Israeli citizenship under the country’s Law of Return. Previously, converts who converted abroad could only gain Israeli citizenship if they lived in a Diaspora Jewish community. Some 150 citizens who have converted in private Israeli Orthodox conversion courts will now be seen as Jewish by the state.

The court rejected the state’s claim that only Chief Rabbinate conversions are legitimate within Israel. Because of the Jewish community’s multifaceted nature, the court ruled, any conversion performed by any Orthodox community, whether in Israel or abroad, are recognized as valid.

“The Jewish nation is indeed one nation, but it is spread out across the world and is composed of communities, layers and sub-layers,” the court’s decision read. Recognizing only the Chief Rabbinate “does not attribute weight to the existing range of Jewish communities–and that is unacceptable.”

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