A bill now stalled in the Knesset has once again opened up a rift between Israel and North American Jewry over the question of who is a Jew.
The touchy issue, exposing the divide between the pluralistic Jewish Diaspora and Israel, where the Orthodox establishment has authority over virtually all functions of religious life, was triggered almost inadvertently. Yisrael Beiteinu, a party in the government coalition, proposed a bill that would give municipal rabbis authority to perform conversions — a move aimed largely at the 300,000 Israeli immigrants who are not considered Jewish according to Halacha, or religious law, and have a difficult time converting under the current centralized system. But as the legislation evolved in the Knesset’s law committee through February and into early March, it had to be amended in order to appease the religious parties and the concerns of the Interior Ministry.
I wish the appeasement of the ultra-orthodox Rabbis and lay Jews in Israel would end.
hmmm Avigdor Lieberman supports breaking the power of the ultra-orthodox rabbinate in Israel. I guess what they say is true, even a broken clock is right twice a day.
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