Israeli legislators are planning to revive legislation that would give the Orthodox Chief Rabbinate sole control over conversions performed in the Jewish state. “If the court wants to declare a war with us, we will answer with war,” Knesset member Shlomo Benizri of the fervently Orthodox Shas Party said after a Jerusalem court ordered that conversions performed by the Conservative and Reform movements be recognized by the Interior Ministry. Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi Yisrael Meir Lau called the court decision a “miserable verdict that empties Jewish content from the state.”
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.
