Former minister says rabbinate is encouraging intermarriage by opposing conversion reform
A former Israeli government minister may be making some sense:
Former Justice Minister Moshe Nissim presented a draft of a new conversion law on Sunday, while accusing the chief rabbinate and others of encouraging intermarriage in Israel by refusing to deal with the large number of immigrants from the former Soviet Union or their descendants who are not Jewish according to Jewish law.I do know that converts should not have to apply for citizenship under the Law of Return, if that's what it takes to make clear we don't approve of their overly stringent positions. And that the rabbinate, as it stands now, should be ashamed of themselves for complicating everything.
Nissim issued a fierce broadside against chief rabbis Yitzhak Yosef and David Lau, who have already denounced the bill. Nissim insisted that his proposal allows for conversion is strictly in accordance with Orthodox Jewish law, but that it admits a less-severe attitude than has hitherto been reflected in the current conversion authority.
Yosef and Lau convened a meeting in the Chief Rabbinate on Sunday with numerous rabbis, including some senior rabbis from the conservative wing of the national religious community to declare their opposition since the bill would make the new conversion authority independent of the Chief Rabbinate.
It would nevertheless be run by Orthodox rabbinical judges with ordination from the Chief Rabbinate.
Labels: haredi corruption, Israel, Judaism, Knesset, Moonbattery, Russia
