Israel: Controversial conversion bill shelved

[July 23, 2010]  JERUSALEM (AP) -- An Israeli government decision to shelve a controversial bill on Jewish conversions drew praise Friday from liberal Jewish groups in Israel and the U.S. who opposed the legislation and waged a vocal campaign to get it thrown out.

Government spokesman Nir Hefetz announced an agreement that will see the bill withdrawn for six months as the sides try to hammer out an alternative. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu approved the compromise to "preserve the unity of the Jewish people," Hefetz said in a statement released late Thursday.

In return, the liberal Jewish groups opposing the bill withdrew the legal action they had initiated in an Israeli court.

The bill, proposed by one of Netanyahu's coalition partners, aimed to provide easier conversion for immigrants from the former Soviet Union, many of whom are not Jewish under Jewish law. It would have liberalized the conversion process inside Israel to some extent while at the same time strengthening the control of Orthodox rabbis.

Conversions are a highly sensitive issue for the three main denominations among the world's 13 million Jews -- Orthodox, Conservative and Reform. The more liberal Conservative and Reform denominations that make up the majority of American Jews, but which have little political clout inside Israel, feared the bill could undermine their legitimacy and connection to the Jewish state.

Though some experts on conversion in Israel suggested those concerns were overblown and the bill was only in the preliminary stages of legislation, the issue nonetheless threatened to drive a wedge between Israel and Jews abroad.

The Jewish Federations of North America, an umbrella group, released a statement praising the decision, while the liberal Reform movement said Netanyahu had succeeded in "preventing significant damage to the unity of the Jewish people."

The Conservative movement praised him for stopping a bill that "could have divided the Jewish people."

[Associated Press; By MATTI FRIEDMAN]

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