Tensions between the Israeli government and Jewish leaders worldwide remain high, despite a move by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu two weeks ago to shelve a controversial bill that would have made the Chief Rabbinate the only body authorized by the government to perform conversions in Israel. The crisis over the new conversion law broke out…
JERUSALEM (JTA) – Israeli politicians rushed to condemn their government’s decision Sunday to freeze a plan promoting pluralistic prayer at the Western Wall. Voices from across the political spectrum, including members of the governing coalition, criticized the vote by the Cabinet as a reckless affront to American Jewry. They warned it could weaken the community’s support for Israel….
Every year for the past six, I’ve spent an early summer weekend camping with several dozen Jewish parents (mostly fathers) and their elementary-school-age kids. We all live in the New York area, but roughly one-quarter grew up in Israel. The other three-quarters hail from the United States or other parts of the Diaspora. Over the…
Lighting one of the 12 torches at the ceremony marking the opening of the country’s Independence Day celebrations is one of Israel’s highest honors, so this year’s decision to invite two Jewish American leaders to participate is proving controversial. Philanthropist Michael Steinhardt and Rabbi Marvin Hier, founder of the Wiesenthal Center, were chosen to light…
I was not very excited to go to Washington DC: recent news from the capital was bleak, to say the least, and the idea of spending my time visiting sites felt like treason. In this country ruled a man who called us rapists and who was building a wall to keep us outside. Sure, I…
JERUSALEM — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu firmly rejected statements by government ministers and members of the Knesset in the wake of this week’s approval of an egalitarian section at the Western Wall. “I reject the recent disparaging and divisive remarks by ministers and members of Knesset about Reform Jews,” Netanyahu said in a statement…
Russian non-Jews who are preparing to immigrate to Israel have been given the option of beginning their conversion to Judaism in Moscow. This option came with the launch last week in Russia of the Maslul project, which is a joint initiative of several organizations for facilitating the conversion process for prospective immigrants even before they…
Some of the loudest cheering for Sunday’s historic deal to create an egalitarian prayer space at Judaism’s holiest site, the Western Wall, came from 7,000 miles away. Reform and Conservative leaders in America called it the Israeli government’s first serious step to honor religious plurality in Israel, where the ultra Orthodox largely control Jewish expression…
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