News Brief

(IsraelNN.com) According to Haaretz, 45 rabbis affiliated with the national-religious movement have agreed to sit on independent batei din (religious courts) to oversee conversions without approval from the Rabbinate.  Haaretz did not identify the rabbis in question, but said that most were members of the Religious Kibbutz Movement or Tzohar, a rabbinical group which recently decided to create it’s own kashrut standard without approval from the state Rabbinate.

The decision to create independent courts is seen as a reaction to hareidi-religious influence in the Rabbinate courts.  Several government officials, including Joint Conversion Institute head Binyamin Ish-Shalom, have argued that the current conversion rabbis discourage thousands of potential converts by insisting that converts observe Jewish law.  The rabbis have argued that an agreement to observe Jewish law is a crucial part of the conversion process.

One of the 45 rabbis told Haaretz there was no alternative to the establishment of independent conversion courts, saying “the Rabbinate is undergoing a process of dissolution.”