Israel's Rabbinic Conversion Judges Paid By Session, Object To More Judges Because Of Income Loss

Yup. Each one of these rabbi conversion judges is paid 120 NIS per court session. Some sessions last only 10 minutes. Lots of converts are made to appear at several sessions of the court, even though this is not the practice elsewhere in the world.

In other words, these rabbis intentionally slow down conversions to make more money. Worse than that, they blocked…

…new judges from being seated.

Ha'aretz reports:

…Critics of the courts, however, say the religious court judges' objection stems from their reluctance to open up the market to competition, and their vested interest in perpetuating the current situation of being paid per court session.

"The fact that [the 25] presiding dayanim receive their salaries based on the number of sessions they hold means they have no motivation to speed up conversions," said one of the 22 new appointees. "They have a financial interest in lengthening the process, causing a headache for potential converts. The new religious court judges were going to change that situation, and create a market where different groups compete to treat converts more efficiently and more courteously."

The conversion court reform began a year ago, when a committee headed by Absorption Ministry Director General Erez Halfon submitted its report to the government, recommending more religious court judges be appointed to ease the conversion process. After repeated delays, the government approved the report's recommendation three months ago.

Two weeks ago Rabbi Amar declared his support for the decision, and even sent letters to the appointees telling them to which courts they would be appointed, a move that sparked protests by the current judges.

"Appointing new religious court judges takes away work from current religious court judges and that is illegal, which is why the new appointments were put on hold," the Civil Service Commission said.

An official at Rabbi Amar's office confirmed his decision to postpone the appointments, saying that talks would be held over the coming days with the Prime Minister's Office on integrating new religious court judges into the court system.

Currently, a religious court judge receives NIS 120 for every conversion court session. Some sessions last only 10 minutes. The judges are paid for every person they convert, even if they convert families together, such as in the case of the Falashmura, Ethiopians who claim Jewish descent and wish to convert to Judaism. Would-be converts arrive at conversion courts after going through several other stages where they study Judaism. In theory, conversions should be approved without lengthy discussions, but in at least 50 percent of cases, the religious court judges require the would-be converts to attend more than one court session.

Comments

[rebitzman]

$34 a session? 6 sessions an hour?

To heck with my son becoming a shochet - to heck with him becoming a lawyer!

That's over $400 LARGE a year!

Where's my wife - we need to talk.

[Ben]

I wonder what happened to Rav Amar's promises to resolve crises created by retroactive annulement (doubt) of thousands of conversions performed by the conversion authority over last decade?
Rav Amar would look more trastworthy if he fulfills his old promises first.

[Isaac Balbin]

Is there any evidence that people are being asked to come back for an extra session for the alleged purpose of the Dayan pocketing another $36?

Is there any evidence to suggest that opening up the system up may result in an "industry standard" cvp (converts per minute) that Battei Din will need to adhere to in order to get their next gig?

[Light to the Nations?]

Conversion to Judaism is such an ardous thing it's ridiculous.

It's funny, they ask you if you really know what you are getting into: that Jews are despised and oppressed around the world. However, what they neglect to tell you is that in converting to Judaism, you'll get the runaround, you'll get delayed, you'll be scrutinized and criticized, and you'll end up feeling like you've been treated a little better than dirt sometimes. Yes, the non-Jews may treat you poorly once you become a Jew, but Jews don't always make it very easy on you when you're converting either. Oh, and if you convert Orthodox, you need to toe the line forever, as they can hold the nullification of your conversion over your head.

Meanwhile, Christians, Muslims, and Buddhists are just signing people up left and right . . . "Wanna join? We're happy to have you!!!"

Yes, it's not all about numbers. And, yes, converts should be sincere. However, when the test of sincerity turns into seeing how long a would-be convert can take banging his/her head against the wall in seeming futility just so s/he join the people s/he fell in love with . . . that just verges on cruelty.

[Yochanan Lavie]

Bravo "LTTN?" There are thousands, maybe millions of people searching for spiritual truth. Meanwhile, the number of Jews continues to plummet. We could probably attract many sincere converts, w/o lowering our standards, if we didn't treat them like sh*t. Imagine a world with 50 million Jews rather than 12 million.

[Harold F]

As usual, Jews are their own worst enemy on conversion. Jewish organizations are wasting their time and money on keeping Jews in who don't want to be in anymore and ignoring non-Jews who want to be in.

[Ariel Sokolovsky [ Blueprint for a better world => http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_cTD6sN5DtA]

B"H
If I remember correctly according to halacha a "dayan" - rabbinic judge should preferably be paid a stable annual salary.
The fact that the State of Israel pays these conversion court judges per session creates this conflict of interest or at least a seeming conflict of intererst.

[R]

Stable or even comfortable. It doesn't say an above average overly inflated rich man's salary.
They obviously are doing it all for money rather than actually judging correctly. Like everything else, greed and money are the ruin of us all.

[Shael Siegel]

Big deal. Rabbi Amar is perhaps the most corrupt Chief Rabbi Israel has ever had. I wrote a post on him a while back and can be accessed on my web site.

In his ministry everything is up for sale. I wouldn't be surprised if he had a hand in the latest scandal involving the duping of a mentally challenged young adult into signing a get when she thought it was a document for obtaining an apartment.

Seeing the religious establishment at work in Israel and here is enough to make anyone resentful.

[jewishwhistleblower]

Hat tip to Luke Ford. This is an excellent resource.

Free Criminal Record Background Check
...
Last month, PeopleFinders, a 20-year-old company based in Sacramento, introduced CriminalSearches.com, a free service to satisfy those common impulses. The site, which is supported by ads, lets people search by name through criminal archives of all 50 states and 3,500 counties in the United States. In the process, it just might upset a sensitive social balance once preserved by the difficulty of obtaining public documents like criminal records.
...
It also lets users view a map showing addresses and names of all those arrested or convicted of a crime in a specific neighborhood, and to place alerts that prompt e-mail when someone in their life gets busted or someone with a record moves in nearby.
...

For example I discovered that convicted child molester Rabbi David Lipman has had a further criminal conviction on June 12, 2007 for an infraction while incarcerated(disobeying order):
http://criminalsearches.com/details.aspx?id=26200800

[Yochanan Lavie]

I agree with Harold F. Jews who might be open to outreach should be approached. But maybe we should stop begging those who don't give a damn and never will, and welcome Gentiles who are curious.

[Los Angeles Yid]

From the Anshe Emes Bulletin,

Rabbi Leib Tropper , Eternal Jewish Family (EJF)

Will be in Shul for Shabbos Nachamu

Rabbi Tropper is trying to spread word about what EJF does and issues with conversion today.

He will be speaking an hour and ½ before mincha and will allow time for Q/A. The entire shul is encouraged to attend.

[The Pico-Robertson Tzadik]

Leib Tropper destroyed more Jewish families and shatter lives than anybody else, For starters check this web site for Gideon Busch of whom he drove to his death and the case where he nullifies a conversion of a woman he snatched from Rabbi Bomzer because she wore pants.

Ask him about that and about whether he beats up his current wife Liba and why he refused to give a Get to his former wife Ms. Margolin

[Schmorgel]

Yochanan said--"Imagine a world with 50 million Jews rather than 12 million."

Gevalt, that's too many!

[steve]

Fist fight over conversions at Mosad Harav Kook

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1215331201902&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

[Hannah Montana]

"Fist fight over conversions at Mosad Harav Kook"

Good ! The Israeli Modern Orthodox grew balls.

[the Heilige Rebbe of Otisville]

It said on UOJ a while back that Tropper and his lap dog Pinchus Rabinowitz converted Chihuahua dog in order likayem ma shenemar :

"yo quero Sushi Metsuyan"