In this 60th if one reflects on Israels standing we see corruption both finanacial and religious, security poor and world opinion lamentable. If Israel is supposed to be a light unto other nations perhaps someone should pay the electricity bill please...............

Only Rabbis who are loyal to the state and who do something for Israel should have authority over these kind of things, while anti-Zionist parasites should be stripped of power.

"The Tzohar Movement of “user-friendly" Zionist Orthodox rabbis called the government to recognize all conversions performed in all factions of Judaism." Kol HaKavod!

in Israel 13 months trying to Convert and still both side blaming each other for dealys and still I did not even get a file open to start the process. So I told the Rabbinate to close my file I hope to go to a Beit Din that will not play politics but simply accept the merit's of my desire and observance. The GOVERNEMENT is to blame for the mess THEY NEED TO STAY OUT OF CONVERSIONS PERIOD. Jewish conversion is no business of Secularist interests. My 10 Agarot's worth. Yitzchak yitzchakmba@gmail.com

FINALLY someone is doing something to end this absurd Haredi domination of Jewish religious institutions in Israel. It is unthinkable that a minority within the religious minority in Israel should have such a massive degree of influence over our lives. At least now it might be in the hands of religious zionists instead of anti-Zionists.

The government should stay out of religion. Do we really want Judaism to be run by our own Vatican?

the hareidim will nto recognize the conversions. the solution, is to boot out the haredim from the infrastructure of the zionist Rabbinate.

Torah commands me -- and every Jew -- not to stand idly by the blood of our brother, which Halakhah interprets to include lashon ha-ra (slander) and, having been published, motzi sheim ra -- the murder of a person's image and reputation. I've seen no evidence proving the impugnings against R. Druckman. I reject such impugnings until I see proof. Even what has been published about the subject of the issue so far fails to constitute proof of any wrong judgment on the part of R. Druckman. Having supposedly been done in the Name, until such impugnings are accompanied by proof, it is also khilul ha-Sheim. As stipulated in Torah and understood since Har Sinai, once converted according to Orthodox Halakhah she became a Jew no different than a "born Jew." One may prefer the interpretations of Beit Shamai or Beit Hileil, but Torah prohibits either adding to Torah or diminishing from Torah. Whatever happened later happened to a Jew. It therefore follows that, if an Orthodox conversion is retroactively judged illegitimate, the beit din ruling thusly has unavoidably distinguished between convert and "born Jew" -- in clear violation of Torah. Don't boil a kid in its mother's milk! The implication of this action is that "born Jews" who deliberately reject or refuse the mitzwot are in identical breach of the b'rit Torah that defines a Jew, and, therefore, similarly illegitimate, excised, expunged and expelled among the goyim. #3 - I don't see where any Orthodox rabbi has acceded to recognize conversions by any non-Orthodox faction. Kindly document your claim. Paqid Yirmeyahu Paqid 16, The Netzarim Israeli Orthodox Jew Advancing Logic as Halakhic Authority Welcoming Jews & non-Jews www.netzarim.co.il

Today I went on a hike near the Banias river. I heard a young couple speaking English and I asked them where they were from. They said that 5 years ago they moved from Leeds to the Galilee in Israel. They also told me that they love it in Israel and do not miss the weather, the people or the anti-semitism in England. So I ask myself who do I respect more , you or them? The answer is pretty obvious. Happy 60th birthday Israel!

Ideally, this is something that should be at synagogue level, as they will have had the most opportunity to get to know each particular convert up close and personal. Something that recognizes all factions will go a long way to insuring that all Jews can be one happy family while respecting and seeing the benefits of each other's differences.

The various cities' chief rabbis and their courts are competent to rule on conversion. The conversion courts are a sinecure and are not needed. For 2,000 years the local beit din has been in charge of this issue with no controversies. Let them continue. The money the rabbinate spends on the conversion court would be better used maintaining a state of the art central database and a list of approved batei dinim - both in Israel and abroad [with whatever accords can be reached with foreign batei dinim]. In general, aside from coordinating, setting some basic standards, and serving a limited formal function within the greater Israeli bureaucracy, the rabbinate needs to butt out of most issues.

Completely agree, #1. As for #10, somehow you want the Diaspora to always pay that electricity bill Simon was talking about.

that the anti-Jewish secular Israeli courts handle conversion, unless they convert them to christians or muslims.

Is Zevulun Orlev and his N.R.P. party anti Jewish ? Are the local "batei Din" seculars ? How stupid to think this . Go and join your anti Israel Iran visitors friends . They , and your kind of "people" , are'nt needed in Israel .

and without your infamous lashon hara, if possible.

Message from Eliah the prophet. Cyclone in Burma was mild reminder of coming up.Torenadoes, tsunami,cyclones & other will intensify not only nature disasters, but diseases accidents as well. There are severe verdicts from God to all idolaters: these who ignore God's laws. You are worse than the people of Nineveh: read Jonah. Start observe all God's from now & beg God to send you his Messiah the one he's chosen, not Jesus whom you've chosen. You Gentiles don't like alive Jews but prefer to serve dead jew: Jew. In God's Holy Language: each letter has it's own numerical value, that's how everything was encoded. In Daniel chap.12:12 is given number 1335 that is the sum of the names of Israeli leaders[previous] Ariel Sharon[798] +Moshe Katsav[537]=1335. They've got their punishment for giving away God's Holy Land to Palestinian terrorists but it's means that it's the end of the times. In Genesis chap.17:12 God says to Abraham to perform circumcision at age of 8 days.8 in Hebrew letters is 401 & 401 is cell in Hebrew. 8 means beyond nature : it's new development; that's why Jews as the nation were invincible.

Some people I know did convert the Haredi way, and had to wait often more then 18 months to get citizenship and health insurance etc. afterwards. Even I who did it the zionistic way because of that, didn't get visa's because the rabbinate didn't want to deal with the state. So in my 36 months conversion programm and afterwards getting citizenship: at least for a year I didn't had health Insurance. That I was not allowed to work or have a pensionplan or so was normal to me... I believe the state should recognize all conversions, but I hope in the future the state will also treat converts as humans. For 1 Pesach Holiday when I was in Yeshiva on my bed for 3 days (while without health insurance) no rabbi came to look, nor was anybody willingly to help me go to the bureaucratic system. I wished that rabbi's and hospitals and the state worked better together. Sorry but sometimes Lashon Hara is neccessary to save lives. 1 of my friends allready tore appart her conversion papers, because of this new idea to annull conversions. while the person is living an orthodox way. Why can't the rabbi's look through it case by case? Are they affraid of people or the pain they create in people by just make a general ruling, without being confronted by people. Are converts numbers? Well as an orthodox person I'm not allowed to tattoo my conversionnumber in my arm. I'm happy that I still have my paper, but I don't know what it is worth. And now my European rabbi's also have to judge about this behaviour of Israeli Rabbi's. So I wait for their psak-din.

Aside from setting the basic standards for ordination I'd go as far as to say we don't need the Chief Rabbinate at all. All of their functions can be handled by properly constituted rabbinical courts on the local level. Kashrut, Marriage, Divorce, and Conversion have been handled by local orthodox rabbis for centuries. The people did not fall apart. Disaster did not strike.