Re: Haaretz: Lieberman calls for quick, mass conversion for CIS olim



On 17-Oct-2007, Faubillaud <faubillaud@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

w w w . h a a r e t z . c o m
Last update - 02:06 17/10/2007

Lieberman calls for quick, mass conversion for CIS olim
By Anshel Pfeffer

Minister for Strategic Affairs Avigdor Lieberman has called for quick,
mass
conversions in Israel for hundreds of thousands of immigrants from the
former Soviet Union who are not considered Jewish according to Halakha
(religious law). He said yesterday that such mass conversions should be
done
as they were in the time of the Second Temple.

He also said that the cabinet did not have enough courage to make clear
decisions on the issue of conversion.



Two thoughts:

One, at first I thought it was Joe Lieberman, & thought that he'd
finally gone of fhis rocker!!

Two: how can this guy be sure that all the new immigrants really
want to convert? Many of them are there on "the family plan", as
it were, and are actually causing a lot of problems - some of which
indicate an *antipathy* to Jews (which doesn't speak well for their
family lives, but that's a different issue.

Susan


Lieberman, who made his statements at a conference in Ashdod on
immigration
and absorption, also attacked the inflexibility of the religious
conversion
courts in their demands that candidates strictly keep religious
commandments.

"How is it possible to expect the cashier working at the Supersol branch
10
hours a day, along with other jobs on the side in order to pay the
mortgage
and finance her elderly parents and pay for a child in the university, to
come three or four times a week to a conversion class in order to learn
all
the details of the religious laws and to strictly keep all of them at
home,"
said Lieberman.

"During [the time of] the Second Temple, they had mass conversions for the
returnees from Babylon. Then they were smarter, and there was less media
and
less political infighting."

According to Lieberman, since there is no agreed-upon solution to the
problem from the religious establishment, then the solution must be
political - though he said that this government did not have the will or
interest to solve the problem.

He also proposed that local city rabbis be allowed to conduct conversions,
and not only via the special courts, though another speaker said that such
a
proposal would only make matters worse, such as what happened in the case
of
the stricter rulings by local rabbis over the shmita, or sabbatical, year.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/913646.html
.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Haaretz: Lieberman calls for quick, mass conversion for CIS olim
    ... mass conversion for CIS olim ... Minister for Strategic Affairs Avigdor Lieberman has called for quick, ... "During the Second Temple, they had mass conversions for the ... the stricter rulings by local rabbis over the shmita, or sabbatical, year. ...
    (soc.culture.jewish)
  • Haaretz: Lieberman calls for quick, mass conversion for CIS olim
    ... mass conversion for CIS olim ... Minister for Strategic Affairs Avigdor Lieberman has called for quick, ... "During the Second Temple, they had mass conversions for the ... the stricter rulings by local rabbis over the shmita, or sabbatical, year. ...
    (soc.culture.jewish)