24.06.2011                      22.Siwan, 5771

Jerusalem:

Yishai joins conversion forum, perhaps without realizing

Neeman calls for Jewish unity while slamming diaspora Jewry for focusing on conversion and not on ‘the major issue’ of assimilation.

Attendants of the Israeli Presidential Conference panel on conversion were witness to a rare moment of Jewish unity on Thursday when Interior Minister Eli Yishai (Shas) briefly shared a table and an address with a panel also comprised of non-Orthodox leaders, along with Justice Minister Yaakov Neeman and head of the Jewish Agency Natan Sharansky.
Organizers had had a hard time finding a person willing to represent the ultra-orthodox perspective on conversion at the panel. The man who finally agreed, Rabbi Yecheskel Weinfeld, announced a short while before the event that he wouldn’t be attending, without explaining why….