We all want to see more and more Jews immigrating to Israel, but we aren’t willing to accept conversion over the Internet or by mail.
—Israeli Likud MK Danny Danon, chairman of the Committee for Immigration, Absorption and Diaspora Affairs.
Haaretz reports that Danon recently affirmed Sephardic Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar’s decision not to recognize conversions by most Orthodox rabbis outside of Israel. The implication is that many converts may not be “eligible to immigrate to Israel under the Law of Return, which grants automatic Israeli citizenship to Jews.”
In his explanation, Rabbi Amar cites that Orthodox rabbis from the European and American continents are receiving bribes from converts up to the sum of one million U.S. dollars.
