American Jewish Committee Urges All Jews To Accept Ne'eman Commission Recommendations

American Jewish Committee
Wednesday, 11 February 1998

The Board of Governors of the American Jewish Committee, meeting in Jerusalem as part of its Board of Governors Institute, today adopted the following policy statement on Conversion and the Report of the Ne'eman Commission. The vote on the resolution followed a special meeting with three representatives of the Ne'eman Commission: MK Alex Lubotsky, President of the Masorati Movement Rabbi Ehud Bandel, and Rabbi Nachum L. Rabinovitch, Rosh Yeshiva of the Hesder Yeshiva Birkat Moshe in Maale Adumin:

"The American Jewish Committee, as an organization with members from all the Jewish religious movements, reaffirms its advocacy on behalf of religious pluralism, its opposition to the Conversion Bill pending in the Knesset invalidating Conservative and Reform conversions, and its support for the proposals of the Ne'eman Commission to resolve this crisis of the Jewish peoplehood. We believe that the Commission report offers a viable solution to the problem of differing standards of personal Jewish status by creating a joint conversion institute encompassing faculty from each of the major religious movements and a uniform conversion procedure to enter the Jewish covenant. Significantly, these proposals maintain the time-honored Judaic principle that no distinction be made between converts and other Jews.

"The workings of the Ne'eman Commission created a replicable model for the conduct of intra-Jewish affairs. An atmosphere of civil and mutual respect among representatives of differing religious ideologies and movements characterized its deliberations. We believe that only through continued dialogue among the various Jewish religious streams may we nurture a spirit of true pluralism within the Jewish people.

"Therefore, for both substantive and procedural reasons, we urge that all the recommendations of the Ne'eman Commission be accepted by all sectors within contemporary Jewry. Complicated issues of religious doctrine require a full discussion and deliberation in order to arrive at viable solutions. These issues of Jewish peoplehood transcend geographical boundaries. All Jews- whether religious or secular, Orthodox o Reform, Israeli or Diaspora- remain bound together as a single people. The proposals of the Ne'eman Commission provide an important vehicle for preserving that unity."

AJC President Robert S. Rifkind commented: "Despite disappointing reports earlier this week of the Chief Rabbinate's rejection of the Ne'eman Commission's principal recommendation, we, together with many Israelis, continue to believe that there is no viable alternative to the path charted by the Commission. Accordingly, we shall work vigorously to achieve its implementation. The alternative, we fear, would be a deep and bitter schism within the Jewish people rather than the unity we so desperately seek."

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