U.S. Orthodox to lobby Knesset on conversion

NEW YORK, Jan. 7 (JTA) — A group of some 75 U.S. Orthodox leaders are traveling to Israel to lobby for the enactment of controversial legislation codifying into law the Orthodox monopoly over conversions in Israel. The trip is the latest effort by Am Echad, One Nation, to prevent legal recognition of Reform and Conservative conversions performed in Israel. Rabbi Moshe Sherer, president of Agudath Israel of America and a member of Am Echad, said the group is going to Israel now because Knesset and government leaders do not “fully understand that Reform conversions mean opening the door to the non-Jews parading as Jews.” Religious pluralism would split the Jewish people in two “with one not able to marry the other,” Sherer added. The Am Echad mission comes as a government-appointed committee struggles to develop a recommended solution to the conversion crisis. The Knesset is expected to act on the measure if the Ne’eman Committee fails to meet its Jan. 31 deadline.