3,100 IMMIGRANTS CONVERTED LAST YEAR; MERIDOR: HUMANE AND SUITABLE CONVERSION PROCESS NEEDED An average of some 350 people from the FSU have converted to Judaism every year over the past five years. In the last Jewish calendar year, 5762, some 800 immigrants from the FSU and 2,300 from Ethiopia - out of a total of 4,500 - converted. According to data compiled by the Central Bureau of Statistics, some 225,000 non-Jewish immigrants live in Israel today. Speaking at the Knesset Immigration and Absorption Committee this week, Chairman of the Jewish Agency, Sallai Meridor, called upon the Chief Rabbinate to take a new open approach toward those immigrants who wish to convert. Meridor attributes great national importance to enabling such immigrants to undergo a humane and suitable conversion process, allowing them to become full members of Jewish society in Israel. Today, the conversion process involves intolerable suffering and cries out for reform. It was reported that 6,000 new immigrants have studied at the Institute for Jewish Studies, which is jointly run by the Jewish Agency and the government of Israel. It was set up following the recommendations of the Ne'eman Commission.

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