The Knesset's Immigration, Absorption and Diaspora Affairs Committee convened a meeting on Tuesday to discuss the dramatic decline in the number of Israelis seeking conversion to Judaism, as reported in Israel Hayom last weekend. According to the data, the number of Israelis seeking conversion has gone down from 4,000 to 3,600 just in the last six months. Committee Chairman Avraham Neguise (Likud) said this week that "the Religious Services Ministry bureaucrats are piling hardships on citizens who are unequivocally Jewish according to Jewish law." Rabbi Seth Farber, the director of ITIM -- an organization that "helps people navigate the religious authorities' bureaucracy in Israel" -- also addressed the issue, saying that an independent conversion court he helped found had "only managed to bring in 130 people over the last six months to undergo Orthodox conversion." On the other hand, a senior Religious Services Ministry employee rejected claims that the ministry was making it too difficult to convert and was putting people off the process. According to him, the decline is due to extensive media coverage of various conversion laws. "There is no problem with conversion. Almost everyone who begins the process and completes a full year of study gets through it successfully," he said. "The problem is that people aren't coming. Every time the conversion issue comes up, we are painted as being overly strict and making people lives miserable, which makes people afraid to come. It simply isn't true. Almost everyone who comes will be approved." According to unofficial data, some 300,000 Israelis are currently listed as not belonging to any religion.
Following Israel Hayom report, Knesset to probe decline in conversions
After report reveals number of Israelis seeking conversion fell from 4,000 to 3,600 in six months, Knesset committee convenes to discuss decline • Religious Services Ministry official: Media reports paint us as being too strict and make people afraid.
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