JERUSALEM — The newest combatants in Israel’s raging battle over ultra-Orthodox control of Jewish law and institutions are six children, ages 1 to 11, who were converted to Judaism on Monday by Orthodox rabbis operating outside the official system.

The conversions were not expected to be recognized by Israel’s Chief Rabbinate or by the Interior Ministry. But after the Israeli government bowed to pressure last month from the ultra-Orthodox, also called Haredim, and reneged on a plan to ease conversion, a group of respected rabbis has expanded its private conversion court in what analysts see as a significant challenge to the establishment.

An article in the daily newspaper Yediot Aharonot said, “The initiative reflects a deep crack in the wall of the religious rabbinate that is going to be impossible to fix” and could lead to the institution’s collapse.

Ben Caspit, a columnist in the newspaper Maariv, called for a stampede to the new conversion courts, describing them as “perhaps a one-time opportunity to save ourselves from the closed and dark ghetto in which the Haredim are trying to imprison us.”