Shamir pledged in writing to the ultra-Orthodox Shas Party to seek to change the law within 60 days to give the Israeli Chief Rabbinate the power to approve all conversions to Judaism for those seeking Israeli citizenship. This in exchange for Shas support in blocking early Knesset elections. Rabbi Yitzhak Peretz of Shas was appointed Minister-Without-Portfolio. He resigned as Minister of the Interior last year rather than comply with a Supreme Court order to register U.S. immigrant Shoshana Miller, converted to Judaism by a Reform rabbi, as Jewish.
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