Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's bold decision to move forward with plans to build a new emergency room for Ashkelon's Barzilai Medical Center by relocating the ancient graves found on the site deserves to be applauded.

Rather than succumbing to pressure from the Ultra-Orthodox deputy health minister, who sought to delay the building and ultimately relocate the new medical facility to protect the graves, the prime minister simply alleviated the deputy health minister of the responsibility, and implemented his own agenda. Notwithstanding the fact that a religious issue was at stake, the multiplicity of religious approaches to this sensitive area of halacha (Jewish law) allowed Mr. Netanyahu the flexibility to neutralize the radical right.

I believe that the Prime Minister's Office ought to continue to use this model to advance other religious issues that are bifurcating Israeli society today, in particular the conversion issue. Some of the Ultra-Orthodox parties have hijacked almost every effort and attempt to make conversion more accessible to Israelis who are not halachically Jewish. A month ago, a proposed conversion bill that would have expanded the number of Orthodox rabbis able to engage in conversion in Israel was obliterated by the United Torah Judaism (UTJ) party because it decentralized conversion. And two weeks ago, ITIM sued the chief rabbinate because some of its Ultra-Orthodox members refuse to recognize state-sponsored Orthodox conversions. 

If the Prime Minister's office would take control of these issues, and simply tell the UTJ that their opinion will not be decisive in determining who is a Jew and who can convert, then these travesties would stop once and for all.

But, just like the hospital decision, the decision to take control of conversion won't be made by the prime minister alone. Netanyahu took a bold step only after the public made clear that they wouldn't tolerate the Ultra-Orthodox position. Once the outcry became so loud, the interests of the public outweighed the special interests of the UTJ.

The public needs to get more involved in making conversion more accessible to Israelis. Anything less will not move things forward.

If the public spoke so forcefully about 3,000-year-old bones, shouldn't it speak out louder about 300,000 individuals unable to convert?

http://cgis.jpost.com/Blogs/orthodoxopinions/entry/dry_bones_and_live_jews

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