Attorney General Yosef Harish will not take immediate legal action against eight leading rabbis who questioned the authority of the High Court of Justice to rule on religious conversion.
Instead, following high-level consultations at the Justice Ministry, Harish decided last week to ask for the intervention of the Ministry of Religious Affairs. Harish was expected to ask Minister of Religious Affairs Zevulun Hammer to decide whether to take disciplinary action against the rabbis or issue an order that would prevent similar petitions in the future.
If his measures are determined to be insufficient, the prosecution could still take action against the rabbis, according to sources at the Justice Ministry.
The eight rabbis, heads of religious courts, signed a petition saying they would not accept the authority of the High Court to rule on matters of conversion to Judaism, following its recent ruling to register Reform convert Shoshana Miller as Jewish.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
