Prime Minister Ehud Olmert promised a visiting delegation of Conservative rabbis from the United States that Israel would maintain a "policy of openness" on the issue of conversions to Judaism overseas.
Olmert met the rabbis on Sunday.
At the meeting, Rabbi Jerome Epstein, Executive Vice President of the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism, told Olmert of the Conservative movement's objection to Chief Sephardi Rabbi Shlomo Amar's initiative not to recognize Diaspora conversions in Israel.
Olmert said that Amar's initiative had not been discussed in the cabinet and that he was committed to maintaining the present open policy on conversion.
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