JERUSALEM — Non-Orthodox Jews both inside and outside Israel are celebrating a historic court ruling recognizing Reform and Conservative conversions as valid and binding upon the Jewish state.

Given the complexity of Israeli society, however, Wednesday's ruling by Israel's Supreme Court is not binding on the Israeli rabbinate.

The result is that the Interior Ministry must now register Israelis who had Reform or Conservative conversions as Jews on their national identification cards — but the rabbinate will not consider them Jews for "personal status" issues such as marriage or burial.

Orthodox leaders have condemned the ruling, and it is not clear if the Interior Ministry, which is run by the fervently Orthodox Shas Party, will abide by it.

Efforts are already underway in the Knesset to undermine the ruling through legislation.

Still, leaders of the non-Orthodox streams rejoiced after the ruling.

"The ruling has historical consequence because it strengthens Jewish pluralism in Israel," said Rabbi Uri Regev, head of the World Union for Progressive Judaism, the umbrella agency for Reform and other liberal organizations in 40 countries.

"It effectively repels the Orthodox establishment that holds that Reform and Conservative converts aren't worthy of being recognized because of the liberal identities of the rabbis that convert them."

The conversion issue has sparked vicious fights over the question of "Who is a Jew?" and strained relations between Israel — where the Orthodox largely control religious life — and diaspora Jews.

It has also threatened the stability of previous Israeli governments, when Orthodox parties vowed to leave the governing coalition if changes to the "religious status quo" were enacted.

Outlining the court's reasoning in its 9-2 decision, Chief Justice Aharon Barak wrote: "Israel is not a state of a Jewish community, Israel is the state of the Jewish people."

The ruling is "obviously a complete and total victory," said Rabbi Andrew Sacks, executive head of Israel's Masorti Movement, as the Conservative movement is known in Israel.

The court's language emphasizes the importance of not enshrining one stream of Judaism above others, he said. "All those people who converted with us and are listed as Ukranian or Peruvian or whatever, now they can have Jewish listed on their identity cards."

The ruling pertains to conversions performed in Israel; those converted by non-Orthodox rabbis outside of Israel already are being registered as Jews.

Nevertheless, the decision carries no weight with Israel's powerful Orthodox establishment.

The court's decision recognizes the concept of religious pluralism in Israel, but Reform and Conservative conversions still are not recognized by the Israeli rabbinate, which maintains its monopoly on issues such as marriage.

"So what if they have an identity card that says they're Jewish," said Avraham Ravitz, leader of the fervently religious United Torah Judaism bloc.

"It doesn't mean they're recognized by Jewish law as being Jewish. It's just bureaucratic."

Already on Wednesday, Shas' Knesset faction presented a legislative proposal to bypass the court decision. Under the bill, conversions would not be finalized until they received the Chief Rabbinate's approval — even if they were performed overseas.

There could be complications following the ruling, said Nicole Maor, the attorney for the Israel Religious Action Center, the activist arm of the Reform movement here.

"It's historic in that the court has ordered the Interior Ministry to register conversions in Israel. Even though it's symbolic, most government bodies don't look any further than ID cards."

Still Maor expects the Interior Ministry to try to avoid fulfilling the judgment.

Moreover, the issue of marriage remains unresolved.

Until they are recognized as Jews by the rabbinate, Reform and Conservative converts can't be married by an Orthodox rabbi — the only Jewish marriages legally recognized by the state.

"It's going to change sometime soon, because this is probably the only democratic country in the world where a significant part of its citizenry can't marry," said Sacks, referring to the large number of Russian immigrants whom the rabbinate doesn't recognize as Jews.

"Over the next couple of years, the Knesset is going to have to find a way to marry" people "outside the rabbinate."