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.”
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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.
