Who’s a Jew? The debate goes to Israel top court.

"- Jerusalem: Raised without religion in Maryland, Shannon sought to make a new life for herself as a Jew in Israel. In a rigorous conversion process, she studied religious law for a year, took a Hebrew name and changed her wardrobe to long skirts and sleeves as dictated by Orthodox Jewish custom. Finally, a panel of rabbis pronounced her Jewish. 

But five years later, she and some 40,000 like her have suddenly had their conversions annulled by Israel’s Rabbinical high court. The court says Haim Drukman, a respected Orthodox rabbi who heads a government authority set up to oversee conversions and has already overseen tens of thousands of conversions over the years, is too liberal in approving them.

The rabbis based their ruling on their discovery that a Danish woman whom Drukman converted more than a decade ago did not observe the Sabbath. 

The issue, now headed to Israel’s supreme court, has exposed an intensifying power struggle inside Israel’s religious establishment over the age-old question of “who is a Jew.” It also threatens to deepen the wedge between Israel and American Jews, who largely follow more liberal schools of Judaism. -"

This is a news item from the Delhi Edition of The Times of India, November 3, 2008.

It's here on my page, because it has an uncanny semblance to some of the articles published earlier on my page, one about the Real Hindu, and the other about a good Sikh.

I think i have more to write today. Will be back.