A new Israeli government committee aimed at resolving the conflict over conversions in Israel angered the Conservative movement. The committee had asked the High Court of Justice to delay a Conservative petition against an Interior Ministry decision not to register as Jews children who were adopted and converted by non-Orthodox rabbis in Israel. In addressing the conversion issue, minister of Diaspora affairs Michael Melchior said that more than half of the 65,000 who immigrated to Israel from the former Soviet Union last year were not Jewish.
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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.