Rabbi Louis Bern stein, president of the Rabbinical Council of America, defended the National Religious Party today against attacks by other Orthodox groups for its abstention on the halachic conversion bill vote. “I have been very critical of the NRP leadership recently. Since I have been critical when I thought criticism was warranted, I must also voice praise when it’s called for. The NRP’s abstention on the recent motion by Agudah Knesset member Lorincz took great courage,” Rabbi Bernstein said in a statement issued here.
“The NRP ministers and Knesset members surely knew the torrent of volcanic abuse that would follow. Yet they had the courage and vision to stand up to this pressure in order to prevent a greater evil which was sure to follow, that of civil marriage and the division of the Jewish people down the middle,” he said. Rabbi Bernstein was referring to a limited civil marriages bill proposed by Israel’s independent Liberal Party. Due to come up for a Knesset vote before parliament’s summer recess, the measure was postponed until fall under pressure from the Labor Alignment. According to one report from Jerusalem at the time, the Labor Party promised to bar the civil marriages bill if the NRP agreed to abstain on the halachic conversion measure.
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