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NATIONAL COUNCIL OF JEWISH WOMEN
GREATER DETROIT JSECTION
the institute — originally devised as a
compromise to end a two-year contro-
versy over whether conversions they
perform in Israel should be recognized
by the state — did not solve any prob-
lems because the Orthodox Chief
Rabbinate has not officially agreed to
recognize the institute's graduates.
The Institute for Judaic Studies,
founded by the Jewish Agency for
Israel and the Israeli government,
started its first program Monday with
37 students, all emigrants from the
former Soviet Union.
Many of the immigrants are non-
Jews married to Jews, who had been
eligible to immigrate under the Law of
Return, which grants automatic citi-
zenship to all Jews when they move to
Israel.
Students will study Judaism for 440
hours — three times a week during a
one-year period. Supervising them will
be a staff of about 25 teachers, drawn
from the three main streams of
Judaism.
Tsila Kraskin, executive coordinator
of the institute for the Jewish Agenc-y,
said that Israel's chief rabbis, while
they have not explicitly endorsed the
institute, hinted at a recent meeting
that Orthodox rabbinical courts
would consider graduates of the new
institute eligible for conversions.
"The chief rabbis told us that if the
institute's graduates will meet their cri-
teria, they will have no problem," said
Kraskin.
Tzvi Rosen, a spokesman for the
Chief Rabbinate, confirmed that this
is the chief rabbis' position.
But Rabbi Uri Regev, director of
the Reform movement's Religious
Action Center in Israel, is uncon-
vinced.
He said several Reform and
Conservative conversion candidates
recently were sent to a moderate
Orthodox rabbi to complete their con-
version courses.
But even this rabbi only agreed to
carry out the conversion if the candi-
dates agreed to observe Shabbat, keep
kosher and give their children an
Orthodox education, he said.
"They were left with two options,"
said Regev. "Either to lie — and some
did — to get an Orthodox conversion,
or, for those who were not willing to
lie, to accept that they cannot con-
vert.
This, said Regev, is probably the
meaning of the rabbinate's willingness
to consider the institute's graduates.
"Their statement only proves that the
institute is totally irrelevant to them,"
he said.
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National Council of Jewish Women,
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3/26
1999
Detroit Jewish News
25