Fighting for their identity: Amos and Rivka Minster on their Journey to Judaism and Israel

Raised in the northern Moravian region of Czechoslovakia, some 200 kilometers southeast of Prague, Petr Amos Minster grew up without religious affiliation.

“I was without a religion,” says the affable 58-year-old, who, together with his wife, Patricia, converted to Judaism in January 2023 in Israel.

Today, Petr and Patricia go by the names of Amos and Rivka. This reporter recently interviewed Amos Minster, who lives in Ramat Raziel, a small moshav in the Jerusalem Corridor, to discuss how the couple  became interested in Judaism, the process of their conversion, and the bureaucratic snags along the way that almost caused their conversion to be reversed.

According to a recent Pew Research Center survey, while the vast majority of adults in Central and Eastern Europe identify with a religious group and believe in God, there is one country that is an exception to this pattern – the Czech Republic, where a majority of the population is religiously unaffiliated and does not believe in God. The Pew survey stated that approximately seven in 10 Czechs (72%) do not identify with a religious group, including 46% who describe their religion as “nothing in particular,” and an additional 25% who say “atheist” describes their religious identity.

Despite his disassociation from religion, Minster’s mother told him that they were Jewish, though they had no written documentation attesting to that. When he was 12, his mother wanted to make aliyah with him, the youngest child in the family. Minster says that they were not able to move to Israel because his mother didn’t have the necessary documents proving her Jewishness.

In 1987, Amos, then known as Petr, married Rivka, who then went by the name of Patricia. Amos says she also had Jewish roots, though she had no documented proof. The couple had three children – a girl in 1988, a boy born in 1990, and a second girl in 1992. Today, all three children have converted to Judaism and live in Israel. Petr worked as a builder and handyman in the Czech Republic, and his wife spent most of her time at home raising the children, though she occasionally worked with Petr as a designer in his projects.

As he got older, he realized that life had to have greater meaning. Amos even visited a synagogue in Prague but did not connect with what he saw and experienced during that brief visit. A friend introduced him to Christianity and the Bible, but he was not attracted to that, either. Amos had never met any Jews and felt that he was in a bit of a religious vacuum.

Nevertheless, the thoughts expressed by his mother that he was Jewish kept alive the hope within him of someday going to Israel.

“There was something inside of me. I don’t know what it was,” he says. In 2009, Petr and Patricia took their first trip to Israel, which triggered their next steps toward becoming Jewish.

“Already at the airport,” he says, recalling his first trip to Israel, “I saw Jewish people, and I realized they were like my mom, and I felt very close, even before I came [here].”

Their children wanted to study in Jewish schools, but they were not accepted in the Czech Republic because they were not Jewish. But, he says, “There was something inside us.”

Long road to aliyah

Amos and Rivka’s son, Boaz, came to Israel 10 years ago, converted, and made aliyah. He lives in Neveh Tzuf with his wife and son. Their daughter Avigail came two years later, converted, and lives in Nof Ayalon with her husband. Boaz studied for conversion at Machon Meir, and Avigail studied at Machon Ora, the sister institution. Ketzia, their youngest, converted several months ago.

Ten years ago, says Amos, he and his wife approached the Jewish Agency in the Czech Republic and petitioned to make aliyah, but they were rejected because they did not have sufficient documentation attesting to their Jewish roots. Despite the rejection, they came to Israel in August 2019 and began to study Hebrew. In June 2020, the couple started their conversion studies – Petr at Machon Meir and Patricia at Pninei Or.

While Israeli citizens and official permanent residents can convert through the state’s conversion program, non-citizens with tourist, student, volunteer, or temporary residency visas must apply to the Exceptions Committee to receive official permission to begin the conversion process. Amos and Rivka applied to the Exceptions Committee. Initially, their request was turned down. After applying a second time, the Exceptions Committee approved their request, and Amos and Rivka continued their studies.

They were called to the state conversion court in late December 2022. The court was suitably impressed with their sincerity and knowledge of Jewish practice and accepted them both for conversion. They performed the ritual immersion for conversion on January 11, and the next day they were married under Jewish auspices.

In March 2023, Amos and Rivka presented their official request for aliyah to the Population and Immigration Authority in Jerusalem, requesting their official Israeli identity cards (teudot zehut).

They did not receive a response until six months later, when, on September 19, they received a tersely worded response with the words “The request in question is being examined by the authorized party at the authority’s headquarters, and a decision has not yet been made on the case. When a decision is made, we will inform you.”

Four months after that brief note had been sent, they had still not received final word from the Interior Ministry.

In January 2024, Amos and Rivka turned to ITIM, the Jerusalem-based organization that assists people in navigating Israel’s religious bureaucracy, to help them obtain their Israeli ID cards.

In its letter to the Population and Immigration Authority, ITIM pointed out that Israel’s official state conversion authority had performed the conversion after Amos and Rivka had been approved by the official Exception Committee and, as such, they were entitled to receive their ID cards immediately.

The letter from ITIM added that Amos and Rivka had become an integral part of the religious community in Ramat Raziel, where they were living, and actively participated in synagogue services and Torah classes.

The Population Authority did not respond to ITIM’s letter. On May 5, ITIM sent a second letter, which was also not acknowledged.

On June 4 of this year, ITIM sent another letter protesting the authority’s inattention to the matter. In that, ITIM mentioned a number of surprising, even shocking, details regarding the behavior of the population registry in the matter.

On March 21, the conversion court that had converted Amos and Rivka reassembled. While Amos and Rivka were told that the ostensible reason for the meeting was to help them receive the status of official olim to Israel, the ITIM letter then explained that the real reason for the reconvening of the conversion court was a request submitted by the Population Authority that the court meet for the purpose of revoking their conversion, something that was never told to Amos and Rivka.

They also “learned only on this day,” wrote ITIM, “that the authority was denying them their ID cards based on unknown suspicions about their practice of Christianity since 2018, long before they started a conversion process.”

When the conversion court reassembled, numerous witnesses testified on behalf of Amos and Rivka to their faithful practice of Judaism as converts. The court gave the Population Authority three months to bring any additional evidence to the contrary. After three months, the court concluded once again that there was no reason to question their conversion.

“The court requests that the Interior Ministry cease in its oppression of the converts and not delay in providing them their lawful rights,” wrote ITIM.

ITIM threatened to take legal action against the Population Authority and the Interior Ministry for their actions – and inactions – in the case.

Several days after ITIM sent the letter threatening legal action, Amos and Rivka finally received their Israeli ID cards.

And here they are

No one from ITIM was ever told about the supposed Christian activities of which Amos and Rivka were accused, which almost overturned their conversion. Amos says that he discovered the nature of the accusation by accident.

In 2017, says Amos – long before he began the conversion process – he was speaking on behalf of a church organization that rebuilt homes. A cross was in the background of the room where he was speaking. The video was filmed and appeared on the Internet.

“They [the Population Authority] didn’t tell me personally,” says Amos about the video. “I heard it from the people they had been dealing with.”

Rabbi Seth Farber, head of ITIM, says that in this case, the Population Authority was acting oppressively against sincere converts who had done everything they were supposed to do.

“This family almost had their own lives upturned because a clerk in the Population Authority decided that they were Christian, which was totally unsubstantiated, as evidenced by the fact that the same Population Authority provided them with their Israeli citizenship.”

Farber points out that the bureaucratic delays also prevented Amos and Rivka from receiving their rights as new immigrants. “The Aliyah and Integration Ministry only gives you rights as olim if you haven’t been a resident for a certain amount of time. Once you’ve been residing in Israel, your rights start to disappear as the clock starts ticking. Had the Interior Ministry recognized their right to immigrate immediately – which they should have, legally – then they would have been eligible. But because of the foot-dragging, their rights began to expire.”

Amos and Rivka are grateful to ITIM for its assistance in helping them navigate their way through the bureaucratic morass. They also are appreciative of the community in Ramat Raziel for its assistance and understanding. They need to improve their Hebrew, but they were recently pleasantly surprised to encounter a woman speaking fluent Czech while waiting in line to sign up for a health fund. “I said, ‘Wow, this is nice.’”

For Amos and Rivka, their biggest thrill was when they completed their conversion process. “I was happy and crying, and jumping when we finished the conversion.” Despite that, Amos says that not having their Israeli ID cards made them feel apart from the rest of the Jewish people in Israel.

“My wife and I are very happy that we could be brought back and connect to our original roots. It also brings us great joy that our children are with us, and we can see our grandchildren already here in our land.

“I was always thinking what it would be like to restart your own life again. And here I am.” 