Knesset panel's report calls for creation of conversion authority - Haaretz

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Mon., August 20, 2007 Elul 6, 5767

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		Sephardi Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar. (Kobi Gideon / BauBau)

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Last update - 10:11 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.

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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.

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1.	You can`t convert to be Jewish.	06:57	\|	L A	20/08/07

2.	Talmud and Rambam are EXTREMELY lenient on conversion	07:48	\|	AV	20/08/07

3.	Sane idea	09:00	\|	Shmulik	20/08/07

4.	Convert to become Jewish?	09:01	\|	Yohan Dahal	20/08/07

5.	#1, L A	10:01	\|	Cipora Julianna Kohn	20/08/07

6.	#1 You can`t convert to Judaism?	10:16	\|	Observer	20/08/07

7.	Cipora re: "LA you can`t.."	11:09	\|	Judith, Haifa	20/08/07

8.	to 4#, Are you drunk?	11:23	\|	MarianoW	20/08/07

9.	conversion	11:58	\|	j10	20/08/07

10.	Conversion?	12:05	\|	Avi Yeryshalmi	20/08/07

11.	#7 You are the racist	12:23	\|	L A	20/08/07

12.	An Orthodox Convert`s Views to Avi, et al	12:51	\|	Chayim Phillips	20/08/07

13.	Convertion	13:08	\|	Livio	20/08/07

14.	conversion	13:35	\|	scotchy	20/08/07

15.	Chayim Philips #12	14:32	\|	Avi Yerushalmi	20/08/07

16.	Real converts welcomed (for Chayim)	15:17	\|	Shlomo T	20/08/07

17.	12Chayim, kol hakovod. Non carborundum illigitimae...	18:44	\|	bat yam	20/08/07

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10:11 Knesset panel's report calls for creation of conversion authority