AS IT SHOULD

With many of you, I read the article in jpost.com on May 11 -- US Jews: Conversion bill 'disastrous'" -- with interest and a sense of pride in JFNA. That sense was not trumped in the least that somehow the statement reached the Post before it reached JFNA's owners and constituents.


A little background: as we wrote on these pages, last month, not having been consulted in the legislative process on this critical matter impacting on World Jewry, JFNA delivered a letter to the Prime Minister demanding among other things to be part of the process related to the Knesset legislation. The Bill's sponsor, MK David Rotem expressed solidarity and he and Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon then visited the US for a "dialogue." Unfortunately, the Rotem/Ayalon trip appeared not to have been to listen but, instead, to "sell" legislation that, as JFNA pointed out, "has the potential to divide the Jewish community or to alienate Diaspora Jewry" by placing the determination of the "validity" of conversions in the hands of the Chief Rabbinate whose antipathy toward the Reform, Conservative and Reconstructionist Rabbinate has been a constant.


As Jonah Mandel's article pointed out, the Israeli leaders seemed to be "unfazed," Rotem going so far as to strangely opine: "when everyone objects to a law, it means that it's a good one." The dismissive attitudes of Rotem and Ayalon, which seem to suggest that the proposed bill is "good for Israel" are clear evidence that the unanimous opinion expressed by JFNA has not been considered as it should be.


I suggested in an earlier Blog Post that JFNA should be in Jerusalem on this issue, in the PM's Offices and in the Knesset. Letters are inadequate -- although this appears to have been a good one. It's time to mobilize.


Rwexler