The rabbinate has sole authority to determine who is and who isn't Jewish in Israel.

Celebrity and aspiring actress Alin Levy, 24, has halted the learning process leading up to her Orthodox Jewish conversion.

This was after the rabbinate told her that "acting as a career does not go together with the spirit of religion".

Ms Levy migrated to Israel from the Ukraine with her Jewish father and Christian mother when she was aged 4.

Admitted to Israel under the country's "Law of Return," which grants citizenship to anyone with a Jewish grandparent, such immigrants are not considered Jewish by the Orthodox Chief Rabbinate.

About 300,000 people therefore live in a type of religious limbo in Israel.

Many would like to convert to Judaism.

But they cannot abide by the rabbinate's insistence that they maintain a strictly Orthodox lifestyle both before and after the conversion.

They note that most Israeli Jews-from-birth aren't Orthodox.

Ms Levy gained fame from participating in Israel's version of the Reality TV show "Big Brother".

She told media she had been studying Judaism intensely and had been dressing more modestly.

Rabbi Seth Farber, director of an organisation that helps prospective converts and others deal with the rabbinate, objected to the rabbinate's stance.

"It is inexcusable to summarily reject someone for conversion because she is an actress," he said.

A rabbinate official told media "the conversion court is a religious body and its demands are in accordance with Jewish law".

A bill before Israel's parliament would allow municipal rabbis to create religious courts and conduct conversions to Judaism.

This would transfer power away from the small group of rabbinic judges.

Chief Sephardic Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef said the rabbinate will not recognize as Jewish those converted in these decentralised courts.

The rabbinate believes these courts will be too lenient.

Sources

• Religion News Service
• Times of Israel
• Image: AreYaKiddinMe