JEWS UPSET OVER BILL IN ISRAEL.

Byline: David Bloom Daily News Staff Writer

For more than half her 80 years, Martha Goldberg of Reseda has watched Israel grow into a stable, relatively secure home for Jews of all types.

Sephardic and Ashkenazi, Russian and Ethiopian, Orthodox and Reconstructed, all had a refuge guaranteed them in Israeli law and society.

Now that's in doubt, say Goldberg and other Jews in Los Angeles. They are outraged at a bill before the Israeli Knesset that would bar religious conversions in Israel not presided over by Orthodox rabbis.

``I've been a Jew all my life,'' said Goldberg. ``But it's not recognized by the Orthodox. I resent that. Who are they to tell me what to believe?''

The controversy has been building for months, bringing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu this week to a three-day U.S. tour, including Los Angeles on Monday.

In Indianapolis on Sunday, Netanyahu said there are ``no second-class Jews.'' In two Los Angeles appearances Monday, he attempted to downplay the bill and pinned hopes on a conciliation commission he named.

``We have to seek a broad and, indeed, historic understanding among all (Jews),'' Netanyahu said. But the commission's findings have been repeatedly delayed.

Netanyahu assured American Jews that all conversions outside Israel will be recognized in the Jewish state.

Such comments did little to ease the fears of some Los Angeles Jews that the law will divide the country and its U.S. supporters.

``This issue reflects questions about whether Israeli society and the Knesset, under the power of the Orthodox parties, will be able to develop an open, pluralistic democracy,'' said Louis Lainer, a West Los Angeles developer active in many Jewish organizations.

``It's clear that for a lot of American Jews, this is turning them off from continuing support of Israel,'' Lainer said. ``It's another area where non-Orthodox Judaisms are delegitimized.''

The bill does have its American supporters, including Orthodox Rabbi Marvin Sugarman, who heads the Shaarey Zedek Congregation in North Hollywood. He said the question of whether to keep supporting the country should never even come up.

``I'm just flabbergasted they (non-Orthodox Jews) should even make a stand on this issue,'' Sugarman said.

``We religious Jews have a fundamental belief in the sanctity of the Jewish state. For Jews in America to decide whether or not they will support Israel based on an action by the Knesset is just disgraceful. They're grasping for straws. Their movement is almost a dead movement.''

But the bill tells ``non-Orthodox Jews here that they are not looked on as Jews. When I travel around the country, it's clear many American Jews are just livid,'' said Executive Director Norman Rosenberg of the New Israel Fund.

At the Jewish Home for the Aged in Reseda, where Goldberg and others live in the state's largest Jewish rest home, residents said the bill denies the very things they've spent their whole lives building.

``I'm Zionist 100 percent,'' said Frieda Waxman, 92. ``But I myself think everyone has a right to decide what they want to think. I think (the bill) is wrong. If you're a Jew, you're a Jew. You can be Orthodox, Conservative or Reformed, but you're a Jew.''

Jay Abarbanel, a property manager active in many Jewish causes, said the American backlash over the bill caught Israeli politicians by surprise.

``The backlash has been tremendous,'' Abarbanel said. ``Politics is a tough game. You make decisions as you see fit.

``But the time comes when you decide what kind of society you're going to have: a democracy or a theocracy. I think the Israelis are going to have to come to grips with this one.''

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PHOTO Frieda Waxman, 92, expresses her views on the conversions bill before the Israeli Knesset.

John McCoy/Daily News