Leaders of the Ethiopian Jewish community declared a day of morning for tomorrow to protest the alleged failure of the Chief Rabbinate to abide by a compromise agreement on the conversion issue.
The day of mourning will replace the traditional feast celebrated by the Ethiopian community on tomorrow’s date, and the accompanying pilgrimage to Jerusalem has been cancelled. The leaders of the community charge the Chief Rabbis reneged on an agreement reached in September to allow Ethiopian couples to marry without ritual immersion, a religious conversion rite.
The compromise ended several weeks of protest demonstrations and a two-week sitdown outside Chief Rabbinate headquarters in Jerusalem by Ethiopian Jews, for whom the immersion requirement is an insult that questions their authenticity as Jews. Premier Shimon Peres intervened personally to achieve the compromise by which the Chief Rabbis would waive immersion for couples whose Jewish identity is certified by elders of the Ethiopian community.
But sources at the Chief Rabbinical Council confirmed today that the Council was insisting on immersion before any Ethiopian couple is permitted to marry.
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