Do NOT listen to #26. Any "rabbi" or other swindler (reform, conservative, or orthodox) who suggests to you that he knows a way how you can convert with his help is breaking the Jewish law. Avoid those people. Go to an Orthodox synagogue, read books, and do not look for an easy deal.

change the rules!!

I'm not sure what the writer is trying to say, but I will be glad to explain to you, in civilized dialogue, why many like myself feel a certain resentment towards the orthodox.. edan_hollombe@hotmail.com

The poster #25 is born to a jewish father, does want to convert and does want to make alyah. I guess Daniel Vandalen does surely know people in the kibutz dati movement or at Yishuv Bat Ayin and will establish a contact. These organisations are running a year long program called Ulpan Giyur in coordination with Misrad haKlita and Rabanut Israel. It is for olim who learn together hebrew and judaism. After a year they can appear in front of a Beit Din, convert and receive israeli citizenship. Helping someone to find the right place to apply for conversion is not breaking halakha. It is helping a lost soul to go back to Klal Yisrael. Hopefully I did not meet someone like you twenty years ago when I was desesperatly looking for information and direction to convert. In such a case, i would perhaps still be ,Has veShalom, a goy.

I always wonder how secular Israelis can speak of religious coercion by the religious. Did religious Jews take children from their parents and send them to yeshivot by force as in the way religious children were sent to the kibbutzim or taken by secular parents to raise? The ultra-orthodox Jews in Israel still very well remember the role the government had in trying to erase religion, taking after their Soviet ideals. Their "father sun" went and died on them and their ador for all things communist diminished. All that is left is vestigial hatred of religion.

"Secular conversion option needed" "Non-religious conversion standard imperative" Oxymoron? Mind you, I only got to the above heading and sub heading and decided to stop reading there. Hey, I hear the reform movement performs instant style weddings at Las Vegas. Do they also dig conversions over there? Perhaps Friedman et-al could lobby the Israeli government to accept the Vegas precedent and maybe get Elvis impersonators to perform weddings, conversions and circumcisions in Israel. food for thought.

spewing out your racist rhetoric again you horrible despicable person

All Jewish movements equal under Jewish secular governance.

im so happy not everyone has to be one race/religion/culture in my country! hooray!!

What is a secular conversion.? You are talking nonsense. Judaism is a religion. It is not a club like the boy scouts or the Tuesday afternoon bridge group. You are either of that religion or you convert to that religion. Now if you want to open up your citizenship to non Jews, that is another question. But on one hand you are worried that Jews are losing their majority in Israel because Arabs are multiplying like field mice then you don't deliberately open the gates because ultimately they will turn against you and join the ranks of the Arabs. Remember they all have nations and in many cases their nations wants to deprive the Jewish people of theirs. On the other hand if they want to join the Jewish people as one, then by all means they should be welcomed. DON'T MUDDY THE WATERS AND WATER DOWN WHAT ISRAEL IS.

I am not sure Gabriella has said anything more than conversion should be according to Halacha and that Israel is a Jewish state. Where is the offence or hate in this?

The dissonance in this article is remarkable. Religious conversion is an inherently religious process. A secular conversion to judaism is not possible. What planet does YNET find these people on?