In the United States of America, Reform Judaism rejects the concept that any rules or rituals should be considered necessary for conversion to Judaism. In the late 1800s, the Central Conference of American Rabbis, the official body of American Reform rabbis, formally resolved to permit the admission of converts "without any initiatory rite, ceremony, or observance whatever." (CCAR Yearbook 3 (1893), 73-95; American Reform Responsa (ARR), no. 68, at 236-237.)
Orthodox Jewish groups are not unified, and different orthodox communities may hold themselves as more strictly correct in observance than others, or consider others' religious observances of inadequate strictness and validity. As such, Orthodox rabbis often will not automatically accept each other's authority, which has led to a general reluctance in the Orthodox communities to prepare and perform conversions. The term 'Haredi' refers to communities that advocate a strict observation of traditional Jewish law.
This issue recently reached a crisis point when the (Orthodox) Chief Rabbinate of Israel changed its requirements for conversion without informing American Orthodox rabbis, and began systematically rejecting most Orthodox Jewish conversions done outside of Israel. The Chief Rabbinate of Israel began to reject all American Orthodox Jewish conversions done by any Orthodox rabbi, except those on a short list of rabbis, numbering less than fifty, some of them deceased.
