IDF program quietly carries out nearly half Israel's conversions - Haaretz

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Last update - 09:52 01/10/2007

IDF program quietly carries out nearly half Israel's conversions

By Anshel Pfeffer, Haaretz Correspondent

The Israel Defense Forces, with the help of the Jewish Agency and Absorption Ministry, has been carrying out a quiet revolution in conversion over the last few years.

On Sunday a reception held in the prime minister's sukkah honored the 2,000th convert participating in the 'Nativ' program.

In a little more than five years, 2,213 people were converted as part of the program. What is even more impressive is that in the past year alone, of the nearly 2,000 conversions that took place in Israel, excluding the special program for Ethiopian Jews, nearly half were carried out in the IDF.

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Those who have witnessed the disagreements between the various ministries and the rabbis over issues of authority and procedure, believe the IDF program offers the best possible solution to the problem. The hope now is that some of the rabbis, who are raising objections on matters of conversion, will not try to disrupt the IDF program.

The initiative to set up the special conversion program in the IDF came from the Human Resources Directorate, Major General Elazar Stern, who at the time was the chief education officer. Stern discovered that many of the new conscripts were asking to take their oaths of loyalty with a New Testament and not the Torah.

According to IDF statistics, some 6,000 new immigrants are serving in the IDF who are not Jewish according to halakha.

A rabbinical court has been in place in the IDF for decades, but until the new program was initiated six years ago, only several dozen soldiers were converted over the years.

Starting in 2002, the Education Corps and the Jewish Agency's Jewish Studies Institute, established in the late 1990s to address the issue of conversion, joined forces to launch the project.

The two formed Nativ, in which the soldiers undergo an intensive seven-week course called the "Jewish-Zionist Identity Program," which then enables them to apply to two seminars that prepare them for conversion.

Initially there was opposition to the program, according to Professor Benjamin Ish-Shalom, chairman of the JA's Institute. The rabbis were reluctant to acknowledge that the kind of preparation being offered in non-religious settings could contribute to a formal conversion process.

"The rabbis were opposed to the fact that we were completing the entire process in a few months," says Nehemia Citroen, director of the institute. "They were accustomed to conversion taking a full year."

A long process of dialogue, and exposing rabbis to all the lessons the converts undergo, led them to agree to accept the soldiers as full-fledged converts.

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1.	Or it was quiet, until the media got hold of it	07:45	\|	Margie in Tel Aviv	01/10/07

2.	IDF program for conversions	08:40	\|	Mary	01/10/07

3.	Israelite Priests give conversions to Gentiles also	10:07	\|	Paul	01/10/07

4.	Conversion in the Jewish State should be easier	10:15	\|	Slibovitz	01/10/07

5.	No surprise.	10:28	\|	Maureen Ann	01/10/07

6.	Paul	11:14	\|	Margie in Tel Aviv	01/10/07

7.	Rabbi admitted that most IDF converts do not truly keep mitzvot	11:18	\|	Moshe	01/10/07

8.	Fake conversions are meaningless	11:28	\|	Another Jew	01/10/07

9.	Slibowitz drank too much vodka. Mixed drinks.	11:30	\|	Joanna	01/10/07

10.	Hmm margie has a point. thank you haaretz	11:33	\|	Jewboy	01/10/07

11.	About time someone blew the whistle.	11:34	\|	HareidiJew	01/10/07

12.	Mary the answer is yes.	11:36	\|	A jew	01/10/07

13.	the JA imports em and then whitwashes them	11:47	\|	Jewboy	01/10/07

14.	IDF convertions are fake: converts are no Jews	11:58	\|	Moshe	01/10/07

15.	Once in, you never get out	12:05	\|	Tim	01/10/07

16.	Converts to Judaism!!??	12:14	\|	Eirik	01/10/07

17.	CANNON FODDER	12:51	\|	The End Is Nigh	01/10/07

18.	MORE SPECIFICALLY: GOISHE CANNON FODDER	12:54	\|	The End Is Nigh	01/10/07

19.	To MOSHE,JEW BOY,HARIDI JEW	13:19	\|	ILSupporter	01/10/07

20.	Tim- judaism is not a party	17:14	\|	Another Jew	01/10/07

21.	End is neigh: speak or whinny for yourself	17:15	\|	Just A jew	01/10/07

22.	IL suporter we do accept them	17:19	\|	Joe Jew	01/10/07

23.	#16 - Eirik - many faiths in the IDF	18:49	\|	Slibovitz	01/10/07

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