Conversion

Convert row: US confused

The United Jewish Communities in America has asked Israeli premier Ehud Olmert to intervene in a conversion row. The group appealed after Israel’s higher rabbinical court suggested up to 15,000 conversions might be revoked.

JFS admissions policy backed by judge

A challenge to the admissions policy of the JFS Comprehensive School in Kenton, North West London, appears to have ended today after Mr Justice Munby ruled the policy to be "entirely lawful and proportionate to the aims and objectives of the school." Sitting in Cardiff, the judge said that Jewish status could only be defined by Jewish law, and was not something to be determined by the secular courts.

Converted Reform? You are a Jew

A Reform leader replies to Charles Golding’s attack last week on the validity of Reform conversions

How could he have got it so wrong? When Charles Golding launched his blood-frothing attack on Reform conversions on this page last week, he made two major errors.

One was his timing. It was so last century. Most Jews today — whatever their religious inclination, be it left, right or centre — agree that the days of “ya-boo-I’m-better-than-you” fulminations are no longer appropriate.

Jews for Jesus in new push

Rabbis express deep concern after JC investigation reveals scale of missionary group’s membership drive

The missionary group Jews for Jesus has launched a new push to gain the allegiance of British Jews, the JC can reveal.

More than 30 volunteers from the London branch of the international organisation, whose central tenet is that Jesus is the Messiah and that Jews need to recognise him as such, are approaching and handing out leaflets to Jews across London.

State and religion clash on converts

In an unprecedented clash between state and religion, Justice Minister Daniel Friedman announced this week that he will act to fire the Dayan (rabbinical judge) who ruled that all the conversions made over the last nine years by the special conversion courts were null and void.

The ruling has caused chaos in the already unsteady conversion process in Israel.

The conversion row: pure politics

Religion is not the prime reason for the recent spate of conversion annulments

Three weeks ago, in a Shabbat sermon about which he must have thought a great deal, Naftali Brawer, rabbi of the United Synagogue at Borehamwood, launched a ferocious attack against those of his colleagues — in Israel and elsewhere — who have proudly claimed responsibility for, and enthusiastically supported, one of the most malevolent rabbinical decisions of recent times.

Rabbi backs conversion sermon

A United Synagogue rabbi has hit back after being sharply criticised by a colleague for his outspoken comments on Israel’s conversion crisis.

In a letter to the JC, Rabbi Naftali Brawer, joint vice-chairman of the US Rabbinical Council, responded to the claims of Hendon’s Rabbi Mordechai Ginsbury, the council’s immediate past chairman, that he has been “intemperate” and “unfair”.

Converted Reform? You’re not a Jew

The Orthodox columnist offers his own scathing view of what he calls a ‘failed Reform experiment’

Not a week passes in the Jewish media without a reference to it. Acres of print are devoted to its analysis. Diverse stories all boil down to one question. Who is a Jew?

The latest conversion row could tear us apart

The conflict over Israeli conversions will lead modern Orthodox to split from Charedim

Shavuot is a time for reading the book of Ruth: “Wherever you go, I go, your people shall be my people and your God shall be my God …” It is a time when Jews should focus on matters relating to conversions. There is much to consider.

Conversion body was ‘a failure’

The Israeli Civil Service Authority has described the Conversion Directorate in a special report as “failing in a national mission” by not succeeding in boosting the number of conversions in Israel over the past decade.

The directorate’s head, Rabbi Haim Drukman, dismissed two weeks ago by the Prime Minister’s Office, hit back at the findings, insisting that “the report is warped and maliciously targeted against me and my deputy.

“We never committed ourselves to numbers and this is a travesty of the whole issue.”

12next ›last »