FEATURED JOBS
Comments (0)Leaders of the Orthodox Union met with top administration officials and with U.S. senators.
Members of synagogues and organizations affiliated with the umbrella body met Wednesday with top National Security Council staff and discussed the U.S.-Israel relationship, the peace process and Iran sanctions, as well as education and energy policy.
The Orthodox Union has been among the sharpest critics of Obama administration pressure on Israel to freeze building in eastern Jerusalem.
The OU’s annual Senate luncheon is one of the best attended among Jewish groups by U.S. senators.
Conversion Bill Still Troubles U.S. Jewish Leaders
American Jewish leaders said they remain concerned about Israeli conversion legislation following a meeting with high-level Israeli government officials.
Leaders of the Reform, Conservative and Reconstructionist movements met Tuesday in New York to discuss a conversion bill with Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon and Israeli U.S. Ambassador Michael Oren.
“We remain concerned, even after yesterday’s meeting, that this legislation would drive a dangerous wedge between the State of Israel and Diaspora Jewry, 85 percent of which is not Orthodox,” read a statement released Wednesday by meeting participants.
The participants said they hope to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on the issue when he comes to Washington at the end of the month.
The pending legislation would empower any rabbi who is or was on a district rabbinate in Israel, or was or is the chief rabbi of a city or town, to perform a conversion for any Israeli regardless of place of residence. This would free would-be converts from the discretion of the special conversion courts and eliminate the curricular requirements for converts, leaving conversion to the discretion of local rabbis.
Under the proposed law, conversions could be voided only if the rabbinical court that conducted the conversion determined it took place under false pretenses, subject to the approval of the president of the national Rabbinic Court of Appeals. Also, a convert seeking to marry but encountering obstinacy at his local rabbinate could return to the rabbinical court that converted him to acquire his marriage license.
Critics say the bill does not go far enough to ease the conversion process, expands the power of the Chief Rabbinate, delegitimizes non-Orthodox conversions and does nothing to secure recognition in Israel for conversions performed in the Diaspora.
“As we have consistently said, and as we reiterated yesterday, conversion must not be tied to one religious stream or point of view,” the statement from the U.S. religious leaders said. “Any legislation pertaining to conversion is by its nature directly linked to the Law of Return and is therefore a matter affecting the world Jewish community.”
Netanyahu, Obama to Meet at End of June
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will meet in Washington with President Obama at the end of the month.
Israeli officials told Jewish groups Tuesday that Netanyahu would be in the U.S. capital on June 28-29.
Netanyahu had been scheduled to meet with Obama last week, but was diverted by the fallout of Israel’s deadly raid on a Turkish-flagged ship attempting to break Israel’s blockade of Gaza.
Obama and Netanyahu both want to upgrade U.S.-brokered “proximity” talks between Israel and the Palestinians to direct talks.
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas is scheduled to meet Wednesday with Obama.
Abbas also is meeting Wednesday evening with the leaders of major American Jewish groups, including the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, the Anti-Defamation League and the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, as well as Jewish former White House officials including Elliott Abrams of the Bush administration and Sandy Berger of the Clinton administration.
The Center for Middle East Peace is convening the meeting.