Tagged Israeli conversion bill

In Tucson, JAFI partnership director discusses new P2G programs, Jewish unity

(L-R) Andrea Arbel, partnership director at the Jewish Agency for Israel; Stuart Mellan, president and CEO of the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona; and Shelly Silverman, JFSA chair, at a lunch meeting in Tucson July 19 (Oshrat Barel/JFSA)
August 10, 2017 / Phyllis Braun, AJP Executive Editor

The Tucson/Kiryat Malachi/Hof Ashkelon partnership “is amazing,” says Andrea Arbel, director of the partnership unit at the Jewish Agency for Israel. “It has grown and developed over the past five years in ways, I would say, that I never dreamed of.” Arbel spent a day in Tucson last month… Read more »

ANALYSIS American Jews really care about pluralism. But it’s not just about pluralism.

Conservative Jews pray at Robinson’s Arch in Jerusalem, July 30, 2014. (Robert Swift/Flash90)
July 3, 2017 / Andrew Silow-Carroll, JTA

(JTA) — The Great Jewish Revolt of 2017. The Bar Kotel Rebellion. The Diaspora Strikes Back. Whatever you call it, last week’s clash between American Jewish leaders and the Netanyahu government felt louder, angrier and more significant than previous clashes over pluralism in Israel. That may be because it wasn’t… Read more »

Israel’s controversial conversion bill, explained

Jewish Agency Chairman Natan Sharansky, center, in brown cap, and Knesset member Dov Lipman, directly to his right, at a protest held by American and Israeli Orthodox and Conservative Jews outside the Chief Rabbinate offices in Jerusalem, July 6, 2016. (Hadas Parush/Flash90)
July 2, 2017 / Ben Sales, JTA

(JTA) — Israeli politicians and Jewish leaders are fighting again over an age-old question: Who counts as a Jew? And who gets to decide? Last week, Israel’s government inflamed simmering tensions over Jewish conversion when a Cabinet committee advanced a bill that would further empower the country’s haredi Orthodox… Read more »

Controversial Israeli conversion bill delayed for 6 months

Benjamin Netanyahu, center, arrives at the weekly Cabinet meeting at the Prime Minister’s Office in Jerusalem, June 25, 2017. (Marc Israel Sellem/Pool/Flash90)
June 30, 2017 / Cnaan Liphshiz and Ben Sales

  (JTA) — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu shelved a controversial bill that would have made the haredi Orthodox-dominated Chief Rabbinate the only body authorized by the government to perform conversions in Israel. Netanyahu’s office announced Friday that the legislation will not be considered for six months while a “team” he will appoint… Read more »