| Message |
Name |
Date and Time |
 Convertion
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Evangelos Nitsopoulos |
0:17 29/12/2012 |
| Convertion, should be made more simple and easily accesible for converts, who wants to honor G-d and keep Commandments.....
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Sharansky's article in J Post
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Gerald Block |
9:32 31/07/2010 |
| Natan Sharansky has an article in the Jerusalem Post in which he argues that this entire exercise has been a "blessing" because it has forced israel and diaspora Jewry into dialogue. Don't know if I agree, but it's certainly food for thought. Here is the link http://www.jpost.com/Home/Article.aspx?id=182586GB
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sephardi rabbis
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sephardi man |
20:46 26/07/2010 |
| There was an article in last week's Yediot about Sephardic rabbis who are much more lenient in issues of conversion. There was a document from the 1970s when Rabbi Ovadia Yosef was the chief rabbi, in which he spoke in several government meetings about how to make conversion easier. This one particular Shas Knesset member, who is being ousted by his party, wrote a book in which he quoted Rabbi Ovadia Yosef on this. (Yosef doesn't want to hear from him). This rabbi worked as a rabbi in Europe and talked about how he had members of his congregation who drove to shul on shabbat. He said that "these are our people," because if they are doing shabbat and kashrut and making an effort to keep a Jewish life, then we should be open about them, and try to keep them 'in' rather than always pushing them 'out.' It was very interesting. But what most itneresed me was that he kept stressing how the lithuanian rabbis are much more stringent about certain rules than the sephardic rabbis have always been, but Shas has sold out... I think he is 100% right.
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Israeli gov't
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Jack Cohen |
20:41 26/07/2010 |
| The entire conversion debate is just another sign that the Israeli government does not give one iota of respect to American Jewry. They are very happy to take American donations, through the federation system and what have you, but when it comes down to seeing us as part of the Jewish people, it just doesn't matter. That whole sabra thing of sticking it to you, the in-your-face attitude, that is just losing its charm, fast. American Jews have just about had enough.
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thank you
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A voice of reason |
15:46 26/07/2010 |
Thank you for this article. This topic is such a painful one for me. I am a Jewish woman, or I thought I was a Jewish woman, my whole life. My mother converted before I was born, we kept shabbat and all the Jewish holidays, kept kosher, etc, etc, and i went to jewish schools and jewish camps. but a few years ago, i met a man in israel and we got engaged and were going to get married, but the rabbis told me i wasn't jewish becuase my mother converted by a conservative rabbi. mind you, she is more religious than many of my 'orthodox' friends -- she does not drive on shabbat, even though our conservative synagogue is nearly an hour away by foot. and she is very active in synagogue, does lots of charity, volunteers in everything, and loves to lead services. she's an amazing woman. And here the rabbis told me that I'm not even jewish! When she converted she even went to the mikvah! We fought this for around a year -- I refused to convert. I refused. My then fiancee eventually broke up with me because he said i was being unreasonable. But i don't want to be told that I"m not Jewish!! I AM Jewish!! And so is my mother!!!! This whole thing makes me so upset, and so angry....
I am a Jew, even if the state of israel says i'm not.
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 that's the saddest story i ever heard
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Esther Channa |
19:03 26/07/2010 |
| That's so sad! I don't believe that Judaism is meant to be that way! I've been religious my whole life, but I just think that if a person is dedicated to yiddishkeit, PLUS had a conversion that included mikva and then keeps mitzvot, I don't know why the rabbis in Israel can't accept that. I think that that my rabbi might.
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Link to Tzvi Zohar's Article
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Eretz Ach moderator |
15:34 26/07/2010 |
Address:
Tzvi Zohar: Attention Conversion Hardliners
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