Israel Conversion Bill: An Open Letter to Benjamin Netanyahu

By Julie Schonfeld

Originally posted in The Huffington Post

A controversy has erupted between Avigdor Lieberman's Yisrael Beitenu party and leaders of the North American Jewish community over a bill on conversion in Israel approved in committee and slated be brought to the Knesset floor. The non-Orthodox streams of Judaism (Conservative, Reform and Reconstructionist) as well as many other North American Jewish leaders representing the vast majority of Diaspora Jewry have been fighting vigorously against this bill since it was introduced in April of this year. The bill, authored by MK David Rotem, would legislatively consolidate all of the power for conversion in Israel in the ultra-Orthodox Chief Rabbinate... [read more]