The media was informed on Thursday 16 Elul that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has canceled the weekly cabinet meeting scheduled for Sunday 19 Elul. The reason given is “personal and technical issues” but in Israel, such a statement is never taken on face value.

Walla News reports that the prime minister canceled the meeting to avoid the scheduled vote on MK Elazar Stern’s Giyur Bill. YWN-ISRAEL reported the Chief Rabbis of Israel sent an urgent letter to Mr. Netanyahu urging him to block the vote and requesting a meeting.

Galei Tzahal (Army Radio) however has a different explanation, stating the lack of agreement on budgetary issues is to blame.

It is difficult to know why exactly the prime minister canceled the meeting but it is clear that the giyur issue is an explosive one, one with broad ramifications. YWN-ISRAEL also reported that a contingent of rabbonim and dayanim from London this week met with Chief Rabbi David Lau Shlita, telling Rav Lau if the law passes they will no longer automatically accept giyorim from Israel.

The rabbonim highlighted the passing of the bill will have global ramifications for Jewish communities around the world may no longer view conversions in Israel as automatically acceptable. Of course these concerns are in addition to the many leading poskim in Israel who oppose the law and whom have signaled they too will not recognize all the conversions and passing the bill into law will compel keeping sifrei yuchasin.

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)