said "...the State of Israel will treat all the congregations of the Jewish People with respect ...." There is the problem . With their numerous "faststyle" conversions , are they still 100 % Jewish ? You can't become Jewish by a conversion , not even by an Orthodox one . To belong to the Jewish People it takes many generations . Judaism has never promoted conversions , the contrary , it was made difficult .

We are not a people only of blood. Just as a family can adopt a child and that child becomes theirs; so we have welcomed converts into our midst to become part of our family.

Charles you are wrong. Gadol hador was converted like Rabbi Akiva, Avtalayon, Shemaya and many romans. Ruth was grandgrandmother of King David, Rahav, Tsipora (Wife of Moshe Rabenu) and many others was converted. I heve a suggestion for you, go to yeshiva and study.

You are Right , we are not a people only of blood . But to belong to our people , have this Jewish history engraved in our blood , have this Jewish background , have those feelings , you need some generations . A convert can belong immediately to the Jewish religion , yes . That does'nt mean Jewish people .

This has been the christian way indeed, when a jew had to have been converted throu 7 generatios before he'd be considered fully christian, in Portugal at least. The feeling of belonging won't be a matter of generations but rather a matter of life stile sharing. Let's not despise marriage itself as a good reason for conversion and incorporation or even more specially the religious conversion itself as the door to incorporating in the jewish people. Israeli life is another great motivation and anyway if a convert abandomns this identity, no problems, it could have happened to any born jew.

Look what i told in my # 4 . PS , i'm an ultra SECULAR 100 % JEW , who made Alyah to be at HOME , and not live begalut .

Then you've just undermined your own point. You admitted that a convert can belong immediately to the Jewish religion - and this is an article about the Religious Ministry. Peoplehood [culture, so on and so forth] is an issue for another discussion. Not that I'm going to get involved in an argument re: halachic requirements of a mikveh and for a ger, but just pointing something out.

This Rabbi spoke about : "congregations of the Jewish People " PEOPLE , not only religion . Remember that talk backs on every subject are'nt limited to this only one , most of tb's are going to a wider spectrum . OK ?

See how ironic this is you charles always cursing out the religous for profiling and mistreating are the biggest profiler and discriminator. Yes you are 100% jewish ( if your mother is/was jewish) but so is the one that converts according to jewish law. The only reason you defrentiate between the religion and the people is to pacify your own desire to be the ULTIMATE jew without actually acting jewish at all. Please dont make the converts pay for your own Inadequacies, its very unimpressive and transparently selfish

I'm "cursing" everyone for misbehaviour or mistreatement , be he/she secular or religious . But we can expect a better behaviour from a religious person , Not ? I'm 100 % Jewish , not only because of my Mother ZL. , but because of my feelings , my Jewish background , and so on . I said it , a convert can become immediately a believing Jew , but not belong to the Jewish people . This takes some generations .

#3 AS CHARLES SAID..QUICKER FAST CONVERSIONS ARE NOT CONVERTS HE DIDNT MAKE THE LAWS. THE SAGES EXPLAINED THE LAWS YOU MENTION RUTH, R'AKIVA, ZTIPORA ETC ETC. first R Akiva was the grandson of a convert. that aside...when your quickie las vegas style converts are as rightous as those you mentioned..then Charles wouldnt have an argument. If you knew what Charles was talking about,you wouldnt have anything to say The papers that say your a jew from a refrm/conservative doesnt make a you a Jew in THE HEAVENS. we have our rules written IN TORAH GIVEN TO MOSES TO THE RABBIS TO THE NATION OF ISRAEL. YOUR REFORM CONSERVATIVE ARGUMENS ARE BASED ON A LACK OF WANTING TO SERVE G'D BUT JUST WANTING TO SERVE YOUR OWN FEEL GOOD EGO. WHY NOT JUST JOIN A HEALTH CLUB AND SAVE US AL THE GRIEF AND SUFFERING THAT YOU CAUSE MANY ORTHODOX JEWS. HOW AND WHY? THATS ANOTHER STORY. THANKS DACON9 jewswithviews@gmail.com

BECAUSE OUR PATH IS NOT MODERN BUT VERY ANCIENT FROM DAY ONE AS OLD AS THE HEBREW LETTERS - ALEF ! ALL ARE CONVERTS BUT WHERE ARE THE RIGHTEOUS CONVERTS ? THE FACT IS A CONVERT WHO STANDS UNDER THE TENT OF JACOB MUST STAND WITH US AND MANY ARE RIGHTEOUS GENTILES BUT MANY ARE ALSO WAVERING AND UNTRUE. TIME REVEALS ! PLEASE LIVE US ALONE, WE JUST WANT TO BE LEFT ALONE ! GIVE US SOME SPACE ! CONVERSION IS HARD FOR ANYONE WHO THINK FROM THE HEART BUT NOT THE HEAD. G-D PLACED THE BRAIN IN THE HEAD NOT IN THE HEART THE SEED OF EMOTIONS.oNE WHO CNAT OBEY THE LIONS DONT BELONG TO THE TENT OF JACOB.

WHAT peopleshood? WHAT "collective feeling"? First of all, these are a theories that come from Hegel, who was used as an explanation in Nazi Germany. "The spirit of the nations" was also used when murder of Jews was justified to a "reluctant individuals in nation" as something positive (I read Goebbels pamphlet about it): It is Jewish spirit to destroy and undermine. And let's just have a glimpse on Seferadi, Mizrahi, Ashkenazi etc to find that not only customs are different, and even some prayers, and performance of mitzvot, that they even have these "spirit of the nations" different! Not to mention - "mentality"! American Jews, German Jews, Eastern European Jews, Russian Jews... So now - somebody tells that there is "a common mentality"? And unison "Jewish people mentality" that you have to "adapt"? To me, it is a chaos that we desperately try to make a cosmos. Also - if somebody pulls that "we feel together as Jews" - let me remind him that this is relative: you are shown only cases when a Jew helps a Jew. How many are cases when a Jew cheats a Jew? Or many? Madoff's background wasn't a problem to take money from Jewish CHARITY organizations - he knew very well what he was doing! He didn't separate his money: "oh, money that will give to charity organizations and Jewsih causes will be protected, since I will make that money in right way, not in Ponzi scheme, and as for the other fools, Ponzi applies." He DIDN'T discriminate - he swindled all, Jews and non Jews alike! How connected to Jews did Madoff feel when he was doing that? So, let's not fool each other: in country I live in, they are also "connected" in the similar way, and their diaspora is more or less the same as is Jewish. For reference, I am also 100% Jew, my mother is Ashkenazi, my father Sefardi, I am brought up as secular, but turned to religion. Now I declare as dati.

Easy come - easy go. A person who just want to wave his weeny in circumcised fashion, just it is fashionable to be a Jew, NEVER succeeds in transmitting that feeling to his child. Child grows and lets that all go. So the Torah cleans itself in this way. BUT with "outside interventions" and "looking at blood" and "mentality" of people who WANT to be a Jew - that is wrong and against Torah. And breeds problems.

You give one example of a "bad" Jew . I think that there are more GOOD Jews , who don't take , but give . There is a solidarity amongst Jews . Also in Western Europe where i lived for most of my life , so i know it . Being Jewish is not only being religious , we , Ashkenazim , Sefardim , Themanim , Ethiopian , Russian and all the others , belong to ONE people . And this even if we pray in a different way , or not at all . Converts want to follow Jewish religious laws , not more . This does'nt mean that they are Jews . Their grand grandchildren will maybe be .

their religion is lawsuits and rights-this sort of thing should be mediated and all synagogues may hve to lose state funding rather than forcing taxpayers to fund gay rabbis and the like

They should teach them a lesson, don't try to oppress the gay and lesbian community of Israel.

no charles your feelings have nothing to do with it you are 100% jewish in spite of your feelings. but who would expect you to be compassionate as you say " we can expect a better behavior from a religous person" and as you so often point out you arent religous so i guess you dont expect better behavior from yourself. oh well

You are saying that a convert cannot feel the part of a Jewish people! And you are claiming that NO convert can do that! That simply isn't true. A convert can be bigger Jew, not just by following mitzvot, but also by its feeling! I know a few converts that I didn't even KNOW that they converted! They are here all their life and they are Jews as much as I don't know who! This what you say is on brink of racism, for goodness sake! That's blood theories! And to prove otherwise, it would be great to see, from prominent, strong "pro-jewish" or "pro-israelies" who is a convert, and who is a "blood Jew". I think we all would be VERY surprised.

That i expect a better behaviour from believing persons is because they are commanded do behave well . And if they don't do it , i'm shouting . Yes , Jews have some feelings . What has compassionate to do with "we can expect......" Not related at all . Regarding my behaviour , not related to religious laws , but to secular Humanistic ones imposed on myself by myself .

When you wrote "...how many Jews did cheat others ? " is this not near to racism ? I knew also converts . One of them a Orthodox one , who became Gabbai in a synagogue . As we worked together for some months i knew him very well . Let me say that exept of being religious there was not much "yiddishkeit" in him , there was'nt any . I don't know "great" converts as you wrote . Can you give some names ? Maybe that i'm on the brink of racism , but i think i'm right . To become truly Jewish , you need some generations .

A religious person would never think that way.

The leaders are merely secular liberals wearing kipot. They lie to Jews around the world and actively destroy the Jewish people through false conversions and intermarriages. They have effectively stopped more Jews from coming into this world than Hitler ever did.

I just realized that I've seen this "Israel Religious Action Center" which is filing this law-suit in another Ynet article recently (however, it distinctly did not mention that it is the IRAC-"of Reform Judaism"). This explains much. The article in the "Jewish World" section (http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3647392,00.html) features the IRAC bringing litigation against Rabbi Kanievsky on the grounds of "incitement" because the Rabbi advised (not "decreed") the Jewish community not to hire Arab laborers, as a protection for themselves from harm (see last week's story about the 4 stabbed in Kiryat Sefer by an Arab air-conditioning repairman and many other such reports). But -- I digress. The point is that this is not so much a religious organization as it is a LITIGIOUS one. Their intention is to make mockery of Torah Judaism in every possible way. The aim of "Reform Judaism", as opposed to the slightly more benign Conservative, is to dismantle the "establishment". Reform is not an Israeli notion. "The shul (temple) of the secular Israelis that they DON'T go to is Orthodox" as the saying goes. (Reform is an intruder, not an organization that "represents the opinion of most of the citizens of Israel" as they presumptuously claim.). Meaning, if you do not wish to practice any or all of the 613 mitzvot, but you like the traditions and "feel" of being a Jew...go ahead and call yourself something like...I dunno..."culturally Jewish". Don't go calling it another "branch" of Judaism. There's only one. Take it or leave it. As for conversions, yes, our religion strongly discourages it, but we are also founded on it. King David (from whom Moshiach will come) was a descendant of a convert (see the Megillah of Ruth); it is mixed into our very fiber (although, Charles has a faaaaint point. There is something in our aggadah that states that a few generations must pass before the "taam" or "taste" of a gentile heritage will leave a convert's line and have no influence -- much as I find that a distasteful notion. We are commanded to "love the convert" and accept them wholeheartedly. It takes a very brave thinker to enter Judaism voluntarily; they have my admiration.). Conversion, however, should not be like instant-soup mix (just add water!). It takes arduous study and no motivation other than itself (like: not because she wants to marry a rich Jewish doctor or so that his parents don't disown him). Much like Israel's "Law of Return", if you're already Jewish, you're in. If you're not Jewish and you want to be an Israeli citizen (like most countries)...you have to do a lot of homework first. Reform have claimed that all one need do is declare that one is Jewish, and *poof*, they are. I find that frightening. They will be the not-so-slow dilution of the Jewish people here that they have become in the U.S. if they are allowed this legal legitimization they are enjoying under the wing of the Attorney General and Israeli court system.

You say "...that a fwe generations must pass before the "Ta'am" or "taste" of a gentile will leave a converts line ...." I say just the opposite : before the JEWISH 'ta'am" or "taste" will ENTER a converts line .