Israel Rejects Conservative Converts

3
>>Follow Matzav On Whatsapp!<<

Israel’s Interior Ministry rejected nine Venezuelans converted by a Conservative rabbi from moving to Israel under the Law of Return.

The ministry argued that because the group lived far away from an established Jewish community they were not sufficiently engaged in Jewish communal life to be accepted as Jews in Israel, JTA reported. The three families involved live in the rural town of Maracay near Valencia, where no Jewish community exists.

Jewish Agency Chairman Natan Sharansky was reportedly considering intervening on their behalf with Interior Minister Aryeh Deri. Juan Mejia, the rabbi who oversaw the conversions, argued that their aliyah was a matter of life and death due to the chaotic situation in his country.

Over the past fifteen years Venezuela’s Jewish population has shrunk from 20,000 to less than half that number.

{Matzav.com Israel News}


3 COMMENTS

  1. It could be a matter of life and death for all Venezuelans, is Israel, then, expected to take them all in?
    Let’s be honest, simply because these few poor souls think they are Jewish, it doesn’t make it happen. Their rabbi ALSO thinks that he is a Yid, AND a rabbi, yet, he is neither.

    Besides, it these pseudoconverts really want to be Yidden, there is a correct way to do so.

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here