Last update - 00:00 20/08/2007
Knesset panel's report calls for creation of conversion authority
By Anshel Pfeffer, Haaretz Correspondent
An inter-ministerial committee will submit on Monday a report calling for a national conversion authority to deal with all stages of conversion to Judaism and to handle the relevant legal issues.
The overall process would come under the supervision of Sephardi Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar.
The recommendation is to appear in a report to be presented to Prime Minister Ehud Olmert Monday.
Conversion to Judaism in recent years has been handled locally by a variety of preparatory bodies, who prepare the candidates on the basis of a various standards, and by special conversion courts that lack a clear hierarchical authority.
According to the committee's report, the number of conversions among the estimated 300,000 immigrants who are not Jewish according to halakha (Jewish law), is relatively low, and this is attributed to the confusion that exists because of the lack of standardization and public awareness of conversion regulations.
The authors of the report conclude that a national conversion authority would contribute to solving these problems, and should be under the administrative control of the prime minister and the minister of absorption.
The director general of the Ministry of Absorption, Erez Halfon, who headed the committee charged with drafting the report, met with Rabbi Amar and obtained his backing for the report's conclusions.
Amar will serve as the senior halakhic authority of the conversion authority, and it will be headed by a person whom he will recommend to the prime minister.