UTJ Rabbis meet to decide on conversion compromise

By MATTHEW WAGNER
United Torah Judaism's rabbinic leadership is expected to meet on Wednesday night to discuss a possible compromise in proposed conversion reforms that would allow the party to join the government coalition. The meeting is slated to take place at the home of Rabbi Yitzhak Zilberstein, a prominent Bnei Brak-based halachic authority. Rabbi Yosef Shalom Elyashiv, the preeminent halachic authority for the Lithuanian Yeshiva world and Zilberstein's father-in-law, announced this week that it was forbidden for UTJ to join a government that intends to implement reforms aimed at making the conversion process easier.