By Laurie Baron
SAN DIEGO-The Israeli Knesset approved a first reading of a law to sanctioning conversions performed by local rabbis instead of keeping them subject only to rabbis and courts requiring conversions meet Orthodox criteria. The Israeli Chief Rabbis condemned the law noting ““Promoting a law of this type without broad agreement is liable to split the Jewish people in its land into camps that will not recognize each other’s Jewishness.” In the same spirit of promoting Jewish unity, the Deputy Minister for Religious Affairs labeled the law an attempt “to appease all kinds of Reform and Conservative groups that are trying to give us conversions that are not according to Jewish law.” Apparently the only way to assure that Israel Jews are not divided by religion is to ban conversions by Jewish denominations that are not Orthodox.
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Fred Phelps, the founder of the Westboro Baptist Church has died. The Church was known for blaming various tragedies in the United States and the deaths of American soldiers as punishment for the sin of tolerating homosexuals. Never expecting Phelps to die, his followers are now wondering if he was been secretly gay.
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If the current search for the debris of Malaysian Airlines Flight 370 fails, aviation authorities plan to turn to the only agency capable of tracking all its whereabouts, the NSA.
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Congressional Republicans tried to attach an amendment to loan guarantees package for Ukraine that would delay stricter IRS enforcement of banning tax-exempt organizations from engaging in political activity. Although Republicans say the two are not related, the loan guarantees are aimed at reducing Russian economic influence on Ukrainian politics; the IRS reforms are aimed at reducing the influence of wealthy donors on American politics.
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Researchers have identified a feathered species of dinosaur that might be an evolutionary ancestor of chickens. There was also evidence of humans coexisting with this species since boneless remains in the shape of a nugget were found in the same vicinity.
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Baron is professor emeritus of history at San Diego State University. He may be contacted via mailto:lawrence.baron@sdjewishworld.com