Israel

Rabbinical Council
Spurns Compromise

HAIM SHAPIRO

Special to The Jewish News

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n a move that essentially
sounded the death knell for
the work of the Ne'eman
Committee,
Israel's Chief
Rabbinical Council
on Monday accepted •
only one of the corn-
mittee's proposals
and rejected any pos-
sibility of coopera-
tion with the non-
Orthodox.
The council said it
accepted that the
Chief Rabbinate
should be the only
body responsible for
approving conver-
sions, and added that
this should be
Rabbi Lau
anchored in law.
But with regard to
the conversion institute or institutes
run by all the streams of Judaism —
a major element of the committee's
plan — the council specifically reject-
ed any cooperation with the Reform
and Conservative movements in such
an institute or any other body.
Its statement described the non-
Orthodox as "those who do not
believe in Torah from Heaven, who
•seek to undermine the foundations of
the Jewish faith. The sages of Israel
forbade any cooperation with them
or their ways. One cannot consider
establishing a joint institution with -
them."
In a joint response, Rabbi Uri
Regev, director of the Reform
Movement's Israel Religious Action
Center, and Rabbi Ehud Bandel,
president of Israel's Masorti
(Conservative) Movement, said the
council had "declared war on the
Jewish people."
The two, who represented their
movements on the Ne'eman
Committee, said the Chief Rabbinate
had cynically exploited its monopoly
_ over the country's Jewish religious
.
life.
In an often stormy session lasting
over five hours, the council first
heard an explanation from Finance
Minister Yaakov Ne'eman, who
chaired the committee set up last
June by Prime Minister Binyamin
Netanyahu. Ne'eman refused to speak
to reporters as he left the meeting.
Haim Shapiro is a writer for the

Jerusalem Post Foreign Service.

Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi Yisrael Lau
said Ne'eman.had reportedoto the
council only on the proposals relating
to the acceptance of the Chief
Rabbinate as the arbiter for conver-
sion and the establishment of addi-
tional conversion courts.
Lau also said that
Ne'eman had given
his word that the
Reform and
Conservative move-
ments would stop
carrying out their
own conversions.
"The finance minister
promised that they
would not undertake
any conversions," Lau_,
said, adding that therMI
had been no such
assurance from the
Reform and
Conservative repre-
sentatives themselves.

•-■

Bar-Ilan's
Support

Rabbi Emanuel Rackman, chancellor
at Bar-Ilan University outside of Tel
Aviv, reaffirmed his support of plural-
ism during a visit to The Jewish News
offices in Southfield this week.
"I've become a voice of unity," the
Yeshiva University graduate told JN 4.4
staffers. "The overwhelming majority
of Orthodox want unity among all
streams of Judaism," he said.
"Difference is inevitable. We must
establish a basis for unity — that's the
basis for Bar-Ilan."
Now in its 43rd year, Bar-Ilan, a
religious university, offers full degree
programs in a variety of disciplines. It
boasts 24,000 students with two
thirds of them not affiliated with the
Orthodox movement, according to the
Albany-born Rackman, Bar-Ilan chan-
cellor for 12 years and before that
president for eight years.
Jewish law, the former president of
the Rabbinical Council of America
said, teaches the doctrine of "our
responsibility for each other — to
1.0
befriend and reach out."
Rackman said he has spoken with
Israel's Chief Rabbinate. "They were
friendly but refused to accept my
premise — that diversity is here to stay,
that we must try to live together." ❑

-

— Robert Sklar, Editor

