Israel’s policy on Jewish conversion is in turmoil after it emerged this week that the Interior Ministry would not recognise conversions in a Ugandan community.

Members of the nearly 2,000-strong Abayudaya community believed they were eligible for Israeli citizenship under the Law of Return after they underwent conversion with the Conservative movement in the United States, but the residency application of one member was rejected on the basis he was not Jewish.

Interior Minister Arye Deri is the leader of Israel’s Strictly Orthodox party, Shas.

The decision contradicted both the Jewish Agency, which considers the Ugandan community to be Jewish, and a government-commissioned report published in February which recommended focusing more resources on congregations like the Abayudaya.

Rabbi Julie Schonfeld, leader of the Conservative movement’s Rabbinical Assembly, said she was “shocked and extremely outraged” by the ministry’s policy, calling it “completely inconsistent with more than two decades of Israeli practice of Conservative converts.”

A High Court appeal against the Interior Ministry’s decision is now being prepared.

News of the refused application came in the week that a report commissioned by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu recommended moving oversight of conversions in Israel out of the Chief Rabbinate’s direct control.

The report by former Justice Minister Moshe Nissim recommended forming an independent, state-funded conversion authority.

The rabbis working for the new body would themselves all be Orthodox, although the Authority’s eleven-member council would include non-Orthodox members with no religious stream having a majority.