Your Voice Made a Difference!
Temple Solel: Please know that your letters, along with those from Jews of all streams and all parts of Israel and the Diaspora, have had an enormous impact in stopping, for now, the passage of a bill in the Knesset that would have reversed the clock in determining "Who is a Jew."
No issue in recent memory has so mobilized the majority of the Jewish community as has the bill proposed by MK David Rotem to vest authority for conversions in the hands of the Chief Rabbinate. The Knesset has now adjourned until October. While a vote on the bill was prevented this week, there is more to be done. Over the next few months, the Reform movement will provide critical leadership with Prime Minister Netanyahu, Jewish Agency Chairman Sharansky, and MK Rotem to craft a bill that addresses the problems that currently characterize the conversion process in Israel and that respects all streams of world Jewry.