Harsh exchanges flew back and forth this past Monday in a stormy session in the Knesset Committee for Immigration, Absorption and the Diaspora, following the claim of Reform organizations that the Chief Rabbinate refused to recognize the `conversions' carried out by them abroad, especially `conversions' made in Reform communities.
The meeting also dealt with the question of the Committee for the Chief Rabbinate's recognition of rabbis from the Diaspora, stating that said committee had been convened only once and that the rift within Diaspora Jewry was continually widening and deepening because of this. In the course of the discussion, various Knesset members, together with Reform and Feminist organizations, attacked the procedures of clarifying the Jewish validity of applicants, a process which has been in effect for many, many generations in the past. They harshly attacked the botei din on this subject.
MK Rabbi Uri Maklev rebuffed those organizations and said that "their prime purpose is the delegitimization of Jewry and the Chief Rabbinate." Rabbi Maklev exposed their hypocrisy, saying that "only of late have we seen this but all of those organizations have violently upbraided the blessed initiative which is designed to help all the agunos of the world simply because this procedure will add clout and authority to the Chief Rabbinate."
