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Israel's top envoy in San Francisco has warned that contributions to the major pro-Israel lobby in Washington will dry up if a controversial conversion bill becomes law.

Consul General Nimrod Barkan in a private cable to the Foreign Ministry in Jerusalem wrote that "a real and immediate danger, it seems to me, is threatening" the American Israel Public Affairs Committee if the Knesset approves a bill allowing only Orthodox conversions in Israel.

Barkan's cable reportedly was leaked by opponents of the conversion bill to Israel's leading daily, Ha'aretz, which ran a front-page report Tuesday that quoted extensively from the cable.

Barkan would neither comment on the report nor discuss the telegram, which apparently stemmed from a private meeting in San Francisco last week between AIPAC's executive director, Howard Kohr, and 50 leading Bay Area AIPAC members.

"From the moment the issue of the conversion law arose, the atmosphere changed and it became clear from what everybody said that they are wondering what to do with their donations if the law passes," Barkan was quoted by Ha'aretz as saying.

"Recently, there has been serious aggravation of reactions to the possibility of the law passing and, in my opinion, we are approaching a red line from which, if crossed, there is no going back," Barkan's secret cable continued.

Citing evidence to support his concerns, Barkan told his superiors at the Foreign Ministry that "in the last two days, two of AIPAC's major national donors called me — each of them a $50,000 contributor — and made it clear to me that if the law passed, they would redirect their contributions to the Reform and Conservative movements."

An AIPAC spokesperson in Washington, Toby Dershowitz, refused to discuss the details of Barkan's warning, adding only that "religious pluralism in Israel is a serious issue with potential for division."

AIPAC's regional director, Naomi Lauter, was away and could not be reached for comment this week. AIPAC's Dershowitz, however, denied that any AIPAC supporters are threatening to withhold funding if Israel's Knesset passes a bill that would give control over conversions in Israel to the Orthodox-led rabbinate.

"There is no trend among AIPAC members to withhold support in any way, monetarily or otherwise," she said.

"No one in the Bay Area has weakened their support for AIPAC because of this" conversion bill, she added.

"Our activists understand that involvement in AIPAC, even as the Israeli government grapples with this difficult issue, assures that vital American support for Israel on many strategic and economic issues will remain unwavering."

The bill has unleashed a wave of protests among U.S. Conservative and Reform movement leaders, who maintain that while it would only affect a small number of potential converts in Israel, the move sends a message that ultimately delegitimizes both the congregations and the rabbis who belong to the liberal Jewish streams.

Israeli Orthodox leaders and proponents of the bill, however, say the legislation, if passed, would simply codify the status quo by which only conversions performed according to halachah (Jewish law) are allowed.

Barkan's reported warning comes on the heels of a move by the Jewish Federation of the Greater East Bay last month to create a fund allowing donors to directly support projects fostering religious pluralism in Israel.

The East Bay campaign, which could fund pluralism programs by Conservative, Reform and modern Orthodox Israelis, follows moves by the S.F.-based Jewish Community Federation and Jewish Federation of Greater San Jose to allow donors to target their money to specific causes in addition to — or instead of — general support for Israel.

Barkan's cable also reportedly warned that key Bay Area AIPAC members, among them former Israelis working in Silicon Valley, are "adamant" that the conversion bill is "crossing a red line" because "some of them are married to converts."

The newspaper quoted Barkan as saying that he "came out of the [AIPAC] meeting for the first time with a clear feeling that we are on the verge of a major downfall in the short term, if the law passes."

AIPAC officials disputed the newspaper's English translation of the Barkan cable that appeared on the Ha'aretz World Wide Web site, and countered with their own version of his message. It was unclear how the Israeli daily obtained the Barkan memo, but sources said it was leaked to the newspaper by Israelis who wanted right-wing religious leaders there to understand that the conversion bill's impact would be significant.

One participant at the San Francisco AIPAC meeting said it was Barkan himself who initially raised the conversion bill issue.

But Rabbi Stephen Pearce, of San Francisco's Reform Congregation Emanu-El and president of the Northern California Board of Rabbis, applauded Barkan for taking action — though he hadn't seen Barkan's memo.

"For a government official to really go out on a limb like that, and go out in support of liberal Jewish communities in the United States when in Israel the government is a bedfellow of the Orthodox movement, takes tenacity and courage," Pearce said.

Barkan has met with Bay Area rabbis and been "unusually candid" in discussing the conversion bill, Pearce added.

The Israeli envoy has been told that the bill could "damage Israel's standing the American Jewish community," Pearce said, and "he understood the gravity of that."