conversion

80% of Kadima voters favor ending Orthodox monopoly on marriage and conversion.

By Michele Chabin
Religion News Service

JERUSALEM (RNS) Following recent face-to-face meetings with Israeli officials in New York, leaders of North America's non-Orthodox Jewish movements said a bill aimed at easing Israeli conversion laws would marginalize non-Orthodox Jews who struggle for equality.

Representatives of the Reform, Conservative and Reconstructionist movements said the bill will strengthen the ultra-Orthodox establishment's authority over Jewish matters at the expense of non-Orthodox Jews.

An Israeli lawmaker told a delegation of American Jewish leaders that he would consult with Diaspora Jewry on issues involving conversion.

Pesach is right around the corner. And while Israel will go through the motions of the holiday, it won't reach the spirit of Passover. Why?

Israel has lost its moral compass.

I'm not talking about Gaza, the Occupation, or 1948, although the expulsion of the Palestinians is where Israel's steps first foundered. With Pesach in mind, I'm talking about how Israel is treating the strangers in its land.

In legal opinion, expert also backs right of city rabbis to reject converts for marriage registration.