Rabbis Ovadia Yosef, Shlomo Amar approve IDF conversions

Rotem: "We need to continue with the legislative process;" Margi, Amar say Netanyahu won't let military conversion bill pass.

Rabbi Ovadia Yosef and Chief Sephardic Rabbi Shlomo Amar approved IDF conversions after a committee of Shas rabbis decided on Friday that they are kosher.

Interior Minister Eli Yishai will bring the halachic ruling to Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, along with a recommendation that Judaism classes for potential converts in the IDF be expanded.

Knesset Law Committee Chairman David Rotem (Israel Beiteinu) intends to continue to promote the IDF conversion bill, despite the rabbinical ruling.

"The chief rabbinate did not solve the problem," Rotem said. "We already knew that Rabbi Ovadia Yosef is a Torah scholar who knows how to solve problems, but where is the critical solution for those that were converted in the past?"

"Tomorrow another chief rabbi will come along and decide that conversions are not okay, and then what will be?" Rotem asked. "Therefore, we need to continue with the legislative process."

Rotem's committee plans to discuss the military conversion bill on Tuesday, at the end of which it may bring the bill to a vote.

Amar, Yishai and other senior rabbis met on Friday at the home of Shas spiritual leader Rabbi Ovadia Yosef to discuss the conversions.

The rabbis at the meeting decided that all 4,500 conversions conducted by the army are valid, and recommended that Yosef recognize them. The Shas spiritual leader accepted their ruling.

"All conversions up until now will be authorized and in the future, conversions will be coordinated with the general conversion system," under the auspices of the Chief Rabbinate, Religious Affairs Minister Yaakov Margi explained in an interview with Army Radio. Margi added that he believes Netanyahu will not let the military conversions bill pass.

MK Nissim Ze’ev, also a Shas party member, said that previous conversions were acceptable, and therefore there is no reason the Chief Rabbinate will not approve them. 

"In principle, when I look at the thousands of conversions, the practical Halacha, everyone who came to get married - can," Ze'ev said. "The problem is solely a technical one."

On Thursday, Amar announced that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu promised that if the rabbis approve the conversions, Netanyahu will not support the military conversion law.

The IDF conversion bill, sponsored by Rotem and fellow Israel Beiteinu MK Robert Ilatov, would grant conversions conducted in the IDF independent status from the Chief Rabbinate.

The law currently requires that all conversions in Israel, including those in the military, need the final signature of the head of the relevant religious community – in this case, the rabbi heading the rabbinic courts, Amar.