The Knesset Constitution, Law and Justice Committee on Wednesday approved the conversion reform bill authored by Hatnuah MK Elazar Stern for a second and third reading.
The charedi community is outraged over the bill, which would see the conversion process in Israel carried out in local rabbinical courts, as opposed to the current system in which only four courts in the country are authorized to perform conversions to Judaism.
In response to the bill’s approval Wednesday, Israel’s chief rabbis wrote a letter to Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu and Religious Services Minister Naftali Bennett saying, “The advancement of this law may split the nation of Israel into many camps.”
Sephardi Chief Rabbi Rav Yitzchak Yosef held a meeting Wednesday with national religious rabbis who also oppose the bill and said, “God forbid we end up in a situation in which we have to keep track of everyone’s [conversion] pedigree.”
A senior Shas party official said Wednesday that “if the conversion bill passes in its [current] format, then within a few months, there will be an alternate rabbinate.”
{Matzav.com Israel}
Netanyahu wants so desperately for Israel to be recognized by the world as the Jewish State, yet the State of Israel is effectively striving to make itself Judenrein.
Hypocrites!!
If you have children in the parsha, follow the gemara and check any prospects yichus 3 – 4 generations up on all sides.
How can the Government get involved in pure Halachic decision making ?Tomorrow they will decide who is qualified to be a Shochet ?
“the current system in which only four courts in the country are authorized to perform conversions to Judaism”
Never in the three thousand year history of Judaism has there been centralized control of conversions. Not even when we had a Temple and the Sanhedrin. Local rabbis were always trusted with this.
“within a few months, there will be an alternate rabbinate.
There already *is* an alternate rabbinate for kashrut? How many charedim will eat the food with only the certification of the official Rabbinate that they now control?
And note that all the rabbis who would be doing conversions under this bill will either have semicha from the official Rabbinate or be otherwise approved by them. There is utterly no need for this centralization.
To Charlie Hall
The above comment must have been written during one of your senior moments.
what a ridiculous comparison mr. hall. a person’s preference as far as kashrus is concerned is of no bearing to anyone else. maintaining the purity of the jewish nation is of paramount concern to all. indeed, for this, there must be centralization, more than any other realm of Judiasm .
#5, stand up for truth: You are absolutely CORRECT! Charlie Hall is Charlie hall who always has a wrong point of view. That’s his problem, it is his view, not the facts. #5 commenter gave a perfect answer to why conversion is the ‘most important’ part of halachic Judaism because it pertains to the whole of the Jewish people. It is not personal, like eating kosher because if the convert is not a true righteous convert, other Jews are effected by this great sin, if it goes through, by the Knesset, which is now a den of mostly apikorsim.