By one vote, with a majority of six MKs who supported the passing of the Conversion Law to five opposed, the Legislative Committee of the Knesset approved for its second and third reading the harsh Conversion bill which will surely wreak havoc upon the entire conversion setup. The Committee rejected all requests for a rerun vote of the proposed law in light of the many reservations voiced against it.
This bill aims at make a revolution in the area of conversion in Israel and the authority of approving it. Among other things, this law enables any municipal rabbi to perform a conversion, which will in effect open the entire area of conversion and allow for every candidate to choose the rabbi and the location where his conversion will take place. There are no central standards and each rabbi will thus follow whatever procedures and standards he favors. From past experience it is very likely that some rabbis will set very low standards for conversion.
At the conclusion of the voting, the chareidi MKs announced that "this is a black day for Judaism which will go down in historical infamy," while the Yesh Atid representatives and their ilk supporting the law, rejoiced and smiled, saying that this was a historical day.
