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ISRAEL AT WAR - DAY 559

Conversion Bill

Defense Minister Benny Gantz speaks with opposition MK Miri Regev, with coalition whip MK Idit Silman (L) looking on, during a Knesset plenum session, February 28, 2022. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
March 8, 2022, 12:10 pm
Coalition stumbles into last legislative week before Passover break
Failing to muster votes, the government withdraws significant legislation; expected contest coming this week in another attempt to pass contentious Citizenship Law
By Carrie Keller-Lynn
Finance Minister Avigdor Liberman speaks during a Yisrael Beytenu faction meeting at the Knesset on November 8, 2021. (Olivier Fitoussi/Flash90)
November 8, 2021, 6:47 pm
Coalition chiefs vow to advance religion and state reforms, enraging opposition
Liberman, Lapid, Michaeli say they’ll soon work to pass conversion reform, Western Wall compromise deal; ultra-Orthodox party leader calls it a ‘declaration of war’
By ToI Staff
Illustrative: A luxury mikveh (ritual bath) for women, in the Israeli settlement of Alon Shvut on August 25, 2015. (Gershon Elinson/FLASH90)
March 2, 2021, 2:09 pm
PODCAST: Daily Briefing Mar. 2 – Reform/Conservative conversion makes legal Jews
Tune in Sunday through Thursday to hear ToI editors and reporters quickly catch you up on what’s important today
By ToI Staff
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, left, with Shas party chairman Interior Minister Aryeh Deri, March 4, 2020. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
June 18, 2020, 1:12 pm
Interior minister revives efforts for Orthodox control over Jewish conversion
Aryeh Deri reportedly asks prime minster to distribute memorandum for bill seeking to recognize only conversions authorized by the ultra-Orthodox state rabbinate
By ToI Staff
A Knesset worker preparing the parliament for the opening of the winter sitting, October 14, 2018. (Knesset)
October 15, 2018, 2:45 pm
Thorny legislation foreshadows early elections as Knesset winter session begins
3 contentious religion-and-state hot potatoes threaten to break up the government and spur a national poll. That might be just what Netanyahu wants
By Raoul Wootliff
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, left, meeting with US Jewish leaders in New York on September 28, 2018. (PMO)
September 29, 2018, 8:00 pm
Netanyahu suggests Diaspora is drifting away from Judaism
At US meeting, PM says he sought to reassure Jewish leaders on Israel’s commitment to pluralism, democracy
By Raphael Ahren
Convert 'Katya' and her daughter sit before the independent Giyur K'halacha conversion court, led by Rabbi Nahum Rabinovitch (center) on August 10, 2015. (courtesy)
September 13, 2018, 12:35 pm
In first, Israeli judge recognizes conversion to Judaism by private court
New ruling says becoming Jewish even outside auspices of state rabbinate entitles one to be recognized in population registry
By ToI Staff
MK Rachel Azaria speaking at a panel discussion at the Schecter Institute on April 30, 2018 concerning the need for Israel to still find its' Jewish identity. (Eyal Weiss/Schecter Institute of Jewish Studies)
May 1, 2018, 6:59 pm
Event meant to build bridges between Israel and Diaspora goes up in flames
A panel discussion hosted by JTS and the Schechter Institute on the religious divide between American Jewry and Israel becomes a microcosm of the widening rift
By Tracy Frydberg
Convert 'Katya' and her daughter sit before the independent Giyur K'halacha conversion court, led by Rabbi Nahum Rabinovitch (center) on August 10, 2015. (courtesy)
April 24, 2018, 2:04 pm
Will new conversion bill help 400,000 Israelis of ‘no religion’? Not likely
Activists predict dire consequences as draft legislation circumvents High Court rulings recognizing private conversion courts that help immigrants become Jewish
By Amanda Borschel-Dan
Convert 'Katya' and her daughter sit before the independent Giyur K'halacha conversion court, led by Rabbi Nahum Rabinovitch (center) on August 10, 2015. (courtesy)
April 22, 2018, 7:33 pm
Draft bill said to give Orthodox sole control over Jewish conversion in Israel
Proposed legislation comes amid tensions between Israel and Diaspora communities, and a coalition crisis with ultra-Orthodox parties
By ToI Staff
Rabbi Rick Jacobs, center, and other progressive Jews clashing with security guards in front of the Western Wall in Jerusalem, November 16, 2017. (Noam Rivkin Fenton/via JTA)
December 31, 2017, 5:06 am
Four ways Israel and American Jews grew apart in 2017
The world’s two largest Jewish population centers have never seen eye to eye, but this year’s confrontations have been particularly acrimonious
By Ben Sales
Natan Sharansky, left, head of the Jewish Agency, with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in the latter's Jerusalem office, June 18, 2013. (Kofi Gideon/Flash90/via JTA)
October 26, 2017, 2:46 pm
Jewish Agency snubs Netanyahu ahead of upcoming board meeting
In light of ongoing stalemate over Western Wall and conversion bill, Jewish leaders feel that meeting the PM ‘may not be urgent’
By Raphael Ahren
Opposition leader Isaac Herzog addresses the Knesset on October 23, 2017. (Yitzhak Harari/Knesset spokesperson's office)
October 23, 2017, 8:14 pm
Herzog accuses Netanyahu of creating ‘unprecedented’ divide with world Jewry
In blistering attack, opposition leader says PM considers Jews who don’t live in Israel as ‘already lost’
By Marissa Newman
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (C) meeting at his Jerusalem office with a 19-member delegation of Democratic members of Congress led by House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer, August 7, 2017. (GPO)
September 30, 2017, 7:23 pm
18 Jewish House Democrats protest Israeli moves against non-Orthodox Jews
In letter to Netanyahu, legislators express profound concerns over conversion bill and scrapping of Western Wall deal
By JTA
Orthodox Jews try to prevent a group of American Conservative and Reform rabbis and the Women of the Wall movement members from bringing Torah scrolls into the Western Wall compound during a protest march against the government’s failure to deliver a new prayer space, at the Western Wall in Jerusalem Old City, November 2, 2016. (Hadas Parush/Flash90)
September 20, 2017, 7:43 am
Sanders, 6 other Jewish US senators urge PM to implement Western Wall deal
Signatories on letter implore Netanyahu to safeguard religious pluralism, block conversion bill
By JTA
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