Israel's Chief Rabbinute is taking up the challenge of Israel's Zionist Rabbinute - and to some extent, traditional rabbis outside of Israel.
The alleged bone of contention: conversions.
It's a big business and currently the only official game in town is the Chief Rabbinates'.
WHAT'S THE PROBLEM?
The Chief Rabbinute has distanced itself far away from the conversion processes that go back to the most notable converts: Abraham Avinu and Ruth.
The Chief Rabbinute is a long way from what Moses ben Maimon (Maimonides or Rambam) set forth. As far as the Rambam was concerned, the requirements a potential convert had to meet were simple:
Study and perform some "minor" mitzvot and agree to expand both study and performance of additional mitzvot. He never demanded that a convert know, and practice, all the mitzvot.
Pretty much what Shamai's counterpart told a potential convert eons before Rambam.
The Chief Rabbinute has made a business of conversions with year-long mills (for a fee) and a promise by the convert that he or she never will be a backslider, never will fail to perform all the relevant mitzvoth.
Because it can, the Chief Rabbinute will revoke a convert's conversion if it feels the convert is not living up to the Chief Rabbinuite's standards - never mind if the convert has married and given birth to children being raised as Jews.. (It is unfortunate, but this has happened in Israel.)
The Israeli Chief Rabbinute has usurped the authority of rabbis outside of Israel, anointing only a select few with the authority to convert people, subject to review by the Chief Rabbinute, of course. (One of the anointed ones recently was involved in a "peeking into the mikveh" as female converts immersed.)
The Chief Rabbinute, because it controls all religious life for Jews in Israel, has a vested interest in maintaining control of the conversion process. Any procedure lacking the Chief Rabbinute's seal of approval is not acceptable by the religious establishment. (Israel's Interior Ministry does not necessarily abide by the Chief Rabbinute's opinions.)
Conservative conversions are not acceptable - period.
Reform conversions certainly are not acceptable. (FromWikipedia, Reform Jewish Views: Reform Judaism rejects the concept that any rules or rituals should be considered necessary for conversion to Judaism. In the late 19th century, the Central Conference of American Rabbis, the official body of American Reform rabbis, formally resolved to permit the admission of converts "without any initiatory rite, ceremony, or observance whatsoever." (CCAR Yearbook 3 (1893), 73–95; American Reform Responsa (ARR), no. 68, at 236–237.)
Even "orthodox" conversions are not acceptable unless they are performed by an anointed rabbi as Rosh Bet Din (head of the three person conversion committee).
Enter the Religious Zionist Rabbinute.
I'm not certain how the Religious Zionist Rabbinute would change what the Chief Rabbinute does.
I understand the Religious Zionist Rabbinute wants to make things easier for a person who wants to convert, but nowhere on the WWW did I find what the Religious Zionist Rabbinute requires. I read that it, like the Chief Rabbinute, requires certain studies in its institutes - how long, emphasis, and cost never are mentioned.
There was a law proposed - but prevented from being presented to the full Knesset (Israeli parliament) - that would have put conversions into the hands of local rabbis. Admittedly this could have resulted in people "shopping" for a lenient rabbi, one who demanded only what Rambam demanded along with circumcision for males and the mikveh for all.
The Religious Zionist's concern, they claim, is to formally convert young people who have been educated in Israeli schools - some in Israeli religious schools - and who are in their daily lives in all respects Jews, albeit for some non-observant Jews, as are many "accident-of-birth" Jews in Israel.
The reasoning is that unless these non-Jewish "Jews" are converted, they will marry "real" Jews and no one will know if a child's mother is the daughter of a Jewish woman. The issue is raised due to immigration by "Russian" Jews and non-"orthodox" Jews from around the globe, primarily the U.S>, Canada, U.K., Australia, and Germany, the latter which gave us both Reform and Conservative movements.
Perhaps the answer is for the Chief Rabbinute to develop a CLEP-like test to determine how much a prospective convert already knows about Judaism before sentencing the prospect to undergo lessons about subjects in which he (or she) already is proficient.
Just a thought.
