JERUSALEM (JTA) — A Knesset committee has approved the advance of a bill that would require the state to recognize only conversions completed under the auspices of the haredi Orthodox-dominated Chief Rabbinate. The measure would circumvent a March 2016 Supreme Court ruling that allowed those undergoing private Orthodox conversions in Israel to become citizens under…
I am a Jew by choice, I was raised a Muslim, and my mother is an ordained Baptist minister. One might think that I would encounter religious conflict with my family on all fronts. In fact, people are often incredulous at the ease with which I can navigate through these three Abrahamic faiths. Perhaps, because…
Food, food, everywhere, but not a morsel to eat. My play on words exaggerate, but as a traveler in a strange land, my eyes often feasted upon a surfeit of food my commitment to kosher forbade I consume. In late 2015 my father died in Harare, Zimbabwe and I inherited his property which included land….
As a woman who underwent Orthodox conversion, I was livid when I read about the controversial Israeli bill that was formally passed into law July 25. The bill allows local Orthodox rabbinates to ban non-Orthodox conversions in publicly funded mikvehs. The ultra-Orthodox United Torah Judaism Party may have introduced this piece of legislation, but in…
Last year I discovered that my rabbi, Barry Freundel, filmed me naked while I was in the mikveh bathroom preparing to convert (during a “practice dunk”) and while converting to Judaism. After outrage and sorrow, I felt fear. Fear for the integrity of my conversion with his name at the top of my documents. At…
JTA has a fascinating story by their intrepid Sue Fishkoff about non-Jewish spouses (read wives) in interfaith marriages who are raising their kids as Jewish The story doesn’t get into the interdenominational and Israel-Diaspora politics of the issue, for a change. It’s about the part that the politicians and scholars too often overlook: real, live…
Israel’s Public Diplomacy and Diaspora Affairs Ministry has tried a new approach to healing the Israel-Diaspora rift left by the recent attempt to pass the so-called Conversion Bill: polling. It commissioned a poll on attitudes towards intermarried Jews and non-Orthodox conversions, and released the results to the Jerusalem Post with a whole lot of spin….
100% of profits support our journalism
