Ten thousand religious-Zionist families are wanted for a national religious imperative of the first order: to accompany non-Jewish new immigrant families in their cultural-religious absorption in Israel. Dr. Asher Cohen of Bar Ilan University, speaking at a Kibbutz HaDati seminar last week in Be'erot Yitzchak, told 150 activists and leaders from Bnei Akiva, Tzohar, Emunah, and others that if "the national-religious public does not take up the challenge, no one will - and the ramifications of a large non-Jewish public living in the Israeli society will have an influence on the character of Israel as a Jewish state."
Cohen said that Halakhic conversion - i.e., according to traditional Jewish Law - must be our solution of choice, or else the new immigrants "will either become a collective of Israeli goyim who speak Hebrew and serve in the army, or - in the worst case - will maintain their own heritage and language, and form Russian ghettos in Israel."
The Israeli rabbinical courts require families interested in converting to be "adopted" by religious families. The Institute for the Study of Judaism, headed by Dr. Benny Ish-Shalom, and the Kibbutz HaDati movement help arrange such matches. Ish-Shalom said that some 5,000 immigrants are expected to study in his institute this year, and that it is having trouble finding enough families willing to "escort" them along their path. Brig.-Gen. Elazar Stern, the army's Chief Education Officer, told the audience that the number of soldiers interested in converting is increasing, and now stands at 3,000.
Cohen said that Halakhic conversion - i.e., according to traditional Jewish Law - must be our solution of choice, or else the new immigrants "will either become a collective of Israeli goyim who speak Hebrew and serve in the army, or - in the worst case - will maintain their own heritage and language, and form Russian ghettos in Israel."
The Israeli rabbinical courts require families interested in converting to be "adopted" by religious families. The Institute for the Study of Judaism, headed by Dr. Benny Ish-Shalom, and the Kibbutz HaDati movement help arrange such matches. Ish-Shalom said that some 5,000 immigrants are expected to study in his institute this year, and that it is having trouble finding enough families willing to "escort" them along their path. Brig.-Gen. Elazar Stern, the army's Chief Education Officer, told the audience that the number of soldiers interested in converting is increasing, and now stands at 3,000.