Battle Over Conversion Law In Israel Takes 6-Month Pause

Today's Jerusalem Post carries an op-ed by Natan Sharansky, chairman of the Jewish Agency, reviewing the battle that has gone on for the past two weeks in the Israeli Knesset over proposed new legislation on conversion.  As reported by the New York Times on Friday, the bill began as an attempt to make conversion to Judaism easier for 300,000 Russian immigrants who came to Israel but are not considered Jewish under Orthodox religious law. The Knesset proposal did this by giving conversion authority to local rabbis around the country. However, when Orthodox authorities objected, the bill was amended to provide that Orthodox Jewish law would be the basis for conversion. That led to massive protests from the Jewish community in the United States who saw this as an attempt to undercut progress in litigation that had been made by the Reform and Conservative movements to have their conversions recognized. As the Knesset adjourned for the summer, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office announced a compromise under which both sides would negotiate for the next six months. Until January, no conversion law will be introduced in the Knesset, and litigation before Israel's Supreme Court by the Reform and Conservative movements will be suspended for the same period.