Moshe Nissim, former Israeli government minister, presented a proposal to overhaul the conversion system in Israel to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday. The report suggests that conversion should be removed from under the auspices of the Chief Rabbinate, and a new state-run Orthodox authority should be established. Conversions made by Conservative and Reform movements in the Diaspora are recognized in the proposal. Both the Sephardic and the Ashkenazic Chief Rabbis are against this proposal.
Yaakov Litzman, leader of the ultra-Orthodox United Torah Judaism party in Israel, said on Monday, if the bill that exempts ultra-Orthodox seminary students from the military is not passed into law in the next seven weeks, his party will leave the government. In September, the High Court of Justice originally did not pass the law because it undermined equality, but the court suspended its decision.
Turning former synagogues that were abandoned during the Holocaust into commercial real estate and incorporating Jewish history into the brand has become a trend in Europe. For example, Mykwa Bar in Warsaw has a translucent floor over what used to be a mikvah. In the Netherlands, a 207-year-old synagogue is in the process of becoming a restaurant.
The Accountant of Auschwitz, a new film which focuses on the high-profile trial of former SS officer Oskar Groening in Germany, will open June 8 at the Hot Docs Ted Rogers Cinema in Toronto. The film stresses the importance of continuing to prosecute the remaining Nazi war criminals.
