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NEW YORK — Israel runs a big risk if it passes legislation reinforcing exclusive Orthodox control over conversions in Israel.

That was the alarm sounded by American Jewish leaders during a flurry of meetings with Israeli officials this month. Nonetheless, the Americans believe that unless something dramatic develops, the legislation is likely to pass within three to six months.

The question now is: How will its passage affect U.S. Reform and Conservative Jews and their relationship to an Israel that does not recognize their Judaism as legally legitimate?

Over kitchen tables and in living rooms, many are grappling with this question. They're then venting their frustrations and protesting in local federations, synagogues and community relations councils.

These leaders' immediate concern is that this frustration may threaten the central fund-raising campaign for human services in Israel. Some donors already have warned that they will bypass the campaign because they believe it does not assign a high enough priority to the cause of religious pluralism.

While a few of the leaders visiting Israel said they believe they could continue to influence the legislative process, several said the best they could hope for are stalling tactics by sympathizers in high places.

That includes Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, despite his pledge to his fervently Orthodox coalition partners to pass the conversion legislation.

The U.S. Orthodox establishment has made it clear that it supports the legislation, which has not yet been introduced in the Knesset.

Nonetheless, some Orthodox representatives joined last week's select U.S. delegations from the fund-raising establishment and the religious movements. Their mission was to explain to Israeli officialdom that Jewish unity hangs in the balance.

Regardless of whether the legislation passes, it has fanned the flames ignited here by the long-standing Orthodox monopoly over religious affairs.

In recent days, the moderate and highly respected chancellor of the Conservative movement's Jewish Theological Seminary, Rabbi Ismar Schorsch, has termed the legislation a "calamity for Israel" and a "calamity for Israel-diaspora relations."

In light of such threats from Israel, he has proposed the most dramatic challenge yet to the Jewish community's central fund-raising establishment.

He suggested that $100 million to $150 million be taken "off the top" of the annual national campaign to "level the playing field" and fund Conservative and Reform institutions and other Jewish outreach programs in Israel.

His call has outraged some of the custodians of that campaign, who now funnel roughly $230 million to humanitarian causes in Israel and have long advocated for more from local federations.

Richard Wexler, national chairman of the United Jewish Appeal, termed Schorsch's proposal "reprehensible."

Wexler supports an increase in the current funding by the Jewish Agency for Israel for each of the religious streams in Israel, now about $1 million each a year.

But he said the chancellor showed himself "insensitive to the needs of our people by suggesting that Jewish lives be ignored at this critical time to build up the coffers of the movements."

Schorsch countered, "There is no self-interest or parochial concern here."

He said the UJA system, which has brought hundreds of thousands of Russian immigrants to Israel, has an obligation to address the fact that more than 100,000 are not considered Jewish under Israeli Orthodox law.

He said Reform and Conservative Judaism could help.

Otherwise, he said, "they will be battered by the religious establishment for the rest of their lives."

By all accounts, the delegates from the United States sounded a gentle but persistent alarm as they shuttled in and out of ministers' offices and Knesset committees in Jerusalem — even as their primary official business was at the Dead Sea for the meeting of the board of governors of the Jewish Agency.

Their message was muted by Orthodox insistence that any discussion in which they participated focus not on legislation, but on the need to preserve Jewish unity.

Nonetheless the message resonated that any legislation delegitimizing Reform and Conservative Judaism could jeopardize the connection to Israel for the majority of U.S. Jewry.

The nexus at nearly all of the meetings was Industry and Trade Minister Natan Sharansky, who heads a new ministerial committee on diaspora affairs.

But the challenges of his job were illustrated during a meeting he called last week to begin a "process of dialogue" among his committee of ministers and hand-picked U.S. leaders.

While Netanyahu made an appearance at the meeting, Interior Minister Eli Suissa abruptly walked out, muttering threats of a government collapse. Suissa, of the fervently Orthodox Shas Party, later said official contact with Reform Jews should be kept to a minimum.

For his part, Sharansky talked about the "Israeli political reality" and pledged only to try to keep whatever conversion legislation that might pass as narrow as possible.

The Jewish Agency, meanwhile, has tried to position itself as a key player on behalf of a diverse world Jewry in the struggle for religious pluralism. It recently formed the Committee on the Unity of the Jewish People.

Agency Chairman Avraham Burg talks passionately about his commitment to the principle. But institutional self-interest is clearly at play.

As the primary Israeli recipient of funds raised by the annual campaign of the UJA and federations across the country, the vast majority of its donors are Conservative and Reform.

"It's about time for the Jewish Agency to position itself at this junction," Burg told the board of governors last week. If it is not a central advocate, "we will be irrelevant to what troubles our constituencies."

The Jewish Agency "is the only international body at which we have all Jewish people working together," he said, referring to representatives of the three main religious streams.

But during a discussion by the board of governors, several Orthodox members got up and said they would not countenance Burg turning the unity committee into a politicized campaign.

And they took issue with Burg's stance on the legislation.

"We believe the law should be adopted — and quickly," said Dr. Mandell Ganchrow, president of the Orthodox Union. "We are united as never before."