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Sephardic Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar. (Tomer Appelbaum)
Last update - 00:00 17/03/2008
Sephardic Chief Rabbi comes under fire over conversions
By Shahar Ilan, Haaretz Correspondent
Tags: Shlomo Amar, conversion 

Sephardic Chief Rabbi came under attack on Monday at his meeting with the Knesset Internal Affairs Committee as Meretz Chairman Yossi Beilin told him that it should be the Interior Minister who decides who is Jewish and who is not, not a rabbi.

"People belonging to other faiths who seek to marry a Jew and become Jewish themselves, I don't want to send them to a rabbi," Beilin explained.

MK Marina Solodkin (Kadima) told the rabbi "you people do everything in the ugliest way, so as to make sure that others don't join Judaism. My constituents are tired of your tricks. I urge you to say outright that you don't want people who have Jewish blood and who paid in exile for this blood."
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The head of Conversion Authority at the Prime Minister's Office Rabbi Haim Druckman said that the conversion exceptions committee is "hell." The exceptions committee is the only body authorized to allow people who aren't Israeli citizens to begin the conversion process in Israel.

The exceptions committee is also the only body authorized to approve conversion for spouses of Israeli citizens who are in the midst of the naturalization process.

According to the Interior Ministry, the exceptions committee fielded 900 applications in 2007, but only half of those were brought up for discussion. Of the half, only 315 were approved.

Internal Affairs Committee Chairman MK Ophir Pines-Paz (Labor) said that the Israeli people must accept any person showing real interest in becoming part of the Jewish people. "We want to broaden the ranks and figure out whether there are people who are denied conversion, and why the process is so difficult. A solid Jewish majority is part of the Zionist commandment," he said.

Rabbi Amar announced that he would appoint a committee to investigate the conversion process. This announcement sparked confusion because only several weeks ago, an inter-ministry committee appointed by Amar to do exactly the same thing completed its investigation and submitted a report. Amar said that this new committee would, among other things, look into the possibility of a more creative conversion process. According to Amar, criminals are trying to infiltrate the conversion process. He said that in order to prevent this "we used police crime scene investigators and espionage."

Amar expressed his support for the establishment of a rabbinical conversion court in Ethiopia in order to convert the members of the Falashmura tribe, many of whom have complained of many obstacles in their journey to immigrate to Israel. Rabbi Amar asked the committee to help him raise funds for the project.


Related articles:
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  • Government says new conversion authority will streamline process
  • Haaretz Editorial: The barrier to conversion
  • Source: Conversion judges making extreme demands
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      2.   What happens when Politicians mess with conversion 15:32  |  Jon 17/03/08
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      6.   Jon, Politicians have started to mess with 15:56  |  Puhi 17/03/08
      7.   HORTODOX ARE THE PROBLEM 15:58  |  JAIME 17/03/08
      8.   ACCEPTNG ONLY JEWS IS ILLEGAL.GVE PA INTERIOR MIN,LET THEM DECIDE 16:26  |  VOICE))))) 17/03/08
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      15.   to Tug919 - I hope you`re not Jewish but... 18:09  |  B`Galil 17/03/08
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