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Israeli Officials Express Frustration Over Strict Conversion Rules

By Howard M. Friedman

In Israel, the strict rules for conversion to Judaism imposed by the Chief Rabbinate continue to rankle government officials who want to find a way to help some 300,000 Russian immigrants who are not technically Jewish under religious law. Many of them wish to convert, but do not want to commit to a strict Orthodox Jewish religious lifestyle which is imposed as a condition of conversion by rabbis who control the government's conversion courts. Yesterday's Jerusalem Post reports that in a speech to the Board of Governors of the Jewish Agency for Israel, outgoing Cabinet Secretary Oved Yehezkel warned of the political problem posed by the situation. He said: "If the haredim [ultra-orthodox] don't begin to show flexibility, the moderate Orthodox establishment in Israel will begin to independently convert many thousands of Jews. In the end, the State of Israel will be forced to recognize these conversions regardless of the desires of the Chief Rabbinate or the official Conversion Authority."

Earlier this week, according to JTA, the Jewish Agency Assembly adopted resolutions calling for Israel to create an independent authority on Jewish conversions and special courts of Jewish law that would apply more "moderate and tolerant" halachic legal standards to facilitate conversions. (Full text of Jewish Agency resolutions.)

Tzipi Livni, the Kadima party candidate for prime minister in the upcoming Israeli elections, took an even more iconoclastic view in a speech to Americans and Canadians in Jerusalem attending the General Assembly of the United Jewish Communities. The Jerusalem Post quotes her remarks: "A Jewish state is not a monopoly of rabbis. It's what each and everyone feels inside. It's not about learning Hebrew or about joining the army, it's about Jewish tradition, Jewish history."

Full post as published by Religion Clause on November 20, 2008 (boomark / email).