The Committee for the Preservation of Jewish Identity has gathered the signatures of 2,000 rabbis around the world on a petition urging the Israeli government to cease permitting non-halachic conversions. The signature drive was coordinated by Rabbi Abraham Gross, president of the Rabbinical Alliance of America, and Rabbi David Finger, head of the Committee of Rabbis of Boro Park (Brooklyn), according to Yosef Wilenkin, spokesman for the Preservation Committee. He said this was the first time so many rabbis had signed one petition.
The protest, he said, deplores Israel’s “outregeous blunder (that) could wreak havoc amongst the Jewish people greater than that ever desired by the evil anti-Semites throughout the ages.” The signers concluded: “We await an answer.” Wilenkin said they included rabbis from New York, Los Angeles, Puerto Rico, England (including the Assistant Chief Rabbi), France, Belgium, Italy, Argentina, South Africa, Australia and Mexico (including Rabbi Abraham M. Hershberg, president of the Union of Latin American Rabbis and chairman of the International Committee for Religious Freedom).
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
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.
