Last update - 00:00 07/02/2008
PM, ministers approve recommendations on streamlined conversion
By Anshel Pfeffer, Haaretz Correspondent
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and the Ministers' Immigration Committee have approved recommendations submitted by a panel set up to examine the process of conversion to Judaism and recommend ways to facilitate it.
Wednesday's approval was delayed five months because of objections by members of the ultra-Orthodox community and conversion rabbis.
The recommendations include setting up a new conversion authority to ensure coordination and congruity between the conversion program and the conversion tribunals.
The panel also recommended that a conversion tribunals representative accompany the converts in the conversion preparation process, and to add 10 new rabbinical judges to the conversion tribunals.
Since most of the obstacles encountered by conversion candidates result from excessive strictness imposed by rabbinical judges on observing religious rules and precepts, Chief Sephardi Rabbi Shlomo Amar intends to set up a rabbinical judges' panel to discuss complex cases.
The recommendation to add dozens of volunteer rabbinical judges to the conversion tribunals to speed up their work has not been approved yet.
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