BREAKING! Haredi Rabbis Annul Another Conversion

High Rabbinic Court ruling on State of Israel stationary says "all Jews" must listen to haredi gedolim.

Rabbi Sherman annuls another conversion
Rabbi who already disqualified thousands of conversions questions Jewishness of female convert, orders her to divorce her husband and declares her children unfit to marry other Jews
Kobi Nahshoni, Ynet

Rabbi Avraham Sherman, who last year retroactively disqualified thousands of conversions that had already been recognized by the Chief Rabbinate, recently annulled another conversion.

This time Rabbi Sherman declared a conversion granted by the Rabbinate to a woman null and void, questioned her Jewishness, ordered her to divorce her husband immediately and stated that as of now her children are to be branded "unfit to marry" other Jews.

Sherman revoked the conversion after he found "flaws" in the process of conversion, which was conducted by the rabbinate. In the ruling Sherman wrote that according to the woman's husband, she paid NIS 10,000 ($2,500) to a rabbi for a "speedy conversion." He also alleged that the woman was not sincere in her acceptance of mitzvot, as she did not go to the mikvah after menstruating.

State will have to decide
Rabbi Sherman's ruling prompted strong reactions among members of the religious administration. Rabbi Moshe Klein, former deputy head of the Chief Rabbinate's conversion program, said that the ruling was "one of the last nails in the burial coffin of conversions in Israel."

Klein called on people seeking to convert to Judaism to wait, because in light of the present situation there was no guarantee that their conversion will eventually be approved.
 
Dean of Sha'arei Mishpat College Dr. Aviad Hacohen, who appealed Sherman's conversion annulment to the High Court of Justice, said that the current ruling proves that "the Rabbinical Court of the State of Israel could turn into a tiny branch of an extremist, stringent Lithuanian beit midrash."

Hacohen added, "The State of Israel will now have to decide whether matrimonial law is conducted according to these norms, or according to the traditional halachic ways of living Torah, which are peaceful and pleasant."

And now the Ha'aretz report:

Rabbinical Court proves subservience to ultra-Orthodox
By Yair Ettinger, Ha'aretz

A decision published on Monday by the High Rabbinical Court exposes how the state's official rabbinical courts view themselves as subject to the decisions of ultra-Orthodox rabbis and leaders of the Haredi public. 

"All the Jewish people view them," referring to the ultra-Orthodox rabbis in the decision, "as appropriate and authorized to instruct the Jewish people, and all the Jewish people are subject to their decisions to do what they teach and not to stray from their teachings," wrote the rabbinical court in its ruling. 

The ruling was handed down by a three-judge panel of dayanim (religious court judges) headed by Rabbi Avraham Sherman, who last year nullified all conversions performed by the state's religious conversion court system headed by Rabbi Haim Druckman. Sherman's ruling on conversions is now being considered by the High Court of Justice. 

Yesterday's ruling came in another conversion case, of a couple from the Tel Aviv area. The decision, made a month and a half ago but only published yesterday, related to an appeal by the woman, who the Tel Aviv Rabbinical Court ordered to be divorced from her husband, and that property matters in the case would only be heard at a later time. During the divorce proceedings doubts were raised as to whether the woman was actually Jewish, as she had converted before her marriage. 

The High Rabbinical Court, the highest of the official state Jewish religious courts, decided to not recognize the woman's conversion - even though she had accepted Orthodox Jewish religious practice when she converted. There were also doubts as to the husband's Jewishness. Even though all these issues cast a doubt on whether halakha, Jewish religious law, requires the couple to divorce, the court decided to follow the strictest interpretations and force them to divorce. 

At the same time, the couple and their children will be placed on the rabbinate's blacklist of those who have restrictions on who they may marry - which effectively prevents them from marrying in the future through the rabbinate.

Most halakhic decisors over the generations have ruled that religious courts ("batei din") do not have the authority to overrule other rabbinical courts, but Rabbi Sherman and the two other dayanim in the case, Rabbi Haggai Izrir and Rabbi Zion Algrabli, preferred the more conservative position of modern ultra-Orthodox decisors. That is the main innovation of the present decision, which relates to the important question of the source of the rabbinical courts' authority. 

The 35-page judgment, with the words "The State of Israel" at the top of every page, gives a clear answer: ultra-Orthodox rabbis. The decision also places the leading rabbi of the Lithuanian ultra-Orthodox faction, Rabbi Yosef Shalom Elyashiv, at the top of the pyramid. 

The ruling stated that all the Jewish People, including rabbis and dayanim, are subject to the rulings of the great ultra-Orthodox decisors. 

As opposed to the regular format of rabbinical court decisions, Rabbi Sherman did not settle for quotes from previous rabbinic rulings, but instead quoted extensively letters and opinions of the ultra-Orthodox rabbis he follows, who oppose the present Israeli system of conversions. 

This ruling is troubling on several counts:

1. The idea that non-Zionist anti-state haredi rabbis are the be all and end all of Jewish law as applied in a Jewish state.

2. The idea that testimony of one party in divorce proceedings could be used to void the conversion of the other party in those proceedings. Divorcing couples are often bitterly fighting, and each side has what to gain from misrepresenting the truth or lying.

3. The idea that a decision of one religious court that still sits and still rules on cases can be overturned by another religious court.

4. Before this ruling, Rabbi Sherman had already shown himself to be biased. He should not be sitting on any state religious court, let alone its High Rabbinic Court of Justice. Yet he is still a member of that court and still rules – even on cases where his bias is clear.

What is happening on a national level in Israel is happening at a communal level elsewhere. Accepted halakha (Jewish law) today is much stricter than it was 30 years ago, and today's rabbis believe and act as if this new largely unprecedented strictness has always been the norm when it has not.

The best way to combat this – short of walking out of Judaism altogether – is to bring back the moderate rulings now forgotten.

In part, that is what I hoped to do with the site I unsuccessfully tried to launch last year, OpenSourceHalacha.com. But I tried to do this with very little money and it it failed.

What we really need is a national project to recover these 'lost' rulings and democratize them by publishing them in ways that reach the largest number of people.

If anyone wants to help me do this, or if you have other ideas on what we could do to help, please let me know.

Thank you.

Chief Rabbi Backs Rabbi Sherman.

Rabbi Sherman: Converts Are Liars.

A Few Modern Orthodox Rabbis Fight Back

[Hat Tips: Ben Max, Joel Katz.]

Comments

[curious]

I do not think that this is a scandal. A convert accepts the basic tenets & rituals of the faith. I think that going to Mikvah after menstruation is a basic tenet or ritual of judaism. So I think that it is justified to say that someone who never did it and perhaps never planned to do it was not sincere when converting. Therefore I do not think that it is scandalous to say that this conversion is void.

Of course I see that this flexible aspect of conversion is a problem to bureaucracy.

But who knows, it might be the solution to the get-withholding-problem: If your husband withholds the get, you start looking in your and his ancestry for a "badly converted grandmother", therefore you are not jewish, so the marriage is void, so you do not need any get and he can kiss your tuches.

In general, in all the fake conversion cases, I do not think that the problem lies with the rabbinate, nor with the convert. I rather think that it lies with the jewish spouses (or their parents) who push them into converting: why can't they be just honest and say they don't care about the religion.

[Ben]

Curious, nobody will be safe unless he/she pledges complete allegance to the Furher Elyashiv personally and promises to follow every crazy saying "daas toirah" of this demented old son of a bitch, or that of the next extrimist "gadol" after this one soon dies and goes to hell where he came from.

There is no end to madness. These fanatics feel empowered and they are in out and out war against everyone else. The problem is that everyone else is not aware of that yet. I afraid that by the time when the general public will become sufficiently knowledgable it will be too late.

[Itchiemayer]

the first paragraph of curious is very well put, and I am in total agreement with it. It is true I am generally against the practice of annulling conversions, but the observance of taharas mishpocha is a basic for a Jew to take on when converting. She is really the one to blame for the annulment. I believe there was a woman allegedly annulled because she was, I believe, seen in pants. That is not enough to annul in my opinion if she is keeping taharas mishpocha, shabbos, and kashrus for sure. Those are the basics to take on. If you don't intend to take any of those on, you are a candidate for annulment in my opinion. You are an ignoramus if you convert and don't intend to take on any of those big three. Now if you did intend to keep taharas mishpocha, kept it for awhile, and then over time began to slip, that is different. Many frum Jews slip in certain mitzvos over time. However, in this case, it sounds like she never took on the practice of taharas mishpocha, so I have no problem with the annulment.

[Yochanan Lavie]

A convert who sins is simply a Jew who sins. Only conversions "al tinay" (conditional) can be revoked, and we don't do those anymore. This is politics, plain & simple. The gadolatollahs want complete allegience & control.

[Shmarya]

the first paragraph of curious is very well put, and I am in total agreement with it. It is true I am generally against the practice of annulling conversions, but the observance of taharas mishpocha is a basic for a Jew to take on when converting. She is really the one to blame for the annulment.

Please.

What is it about testimony of a person who is nogeiah b'davar that you miss?

[Dr. Dave]

I think we need to revoke Rabbi Sherman's smicha along with his chotei umachtei colleagues and send them to learn chumash, gemara and halacha before they opress more gerim.

[MisterApikoros]

I'll translate Dr. Dave into English: Rabbi Adolf Mahmoud Sherman can pound sand.

[Barry]

Prof Menachem Freidmann wrote as essay in 1986 available at
http://www.biu.ac.il/SOC/so/Haredim-Modern_City.pdf
in which he explained the contemporary factors which led to Hareidim becoming more extreme (rejecting compromise or the 'practical') as well as how they came about to monopolize religious services to the exclusion of non-Hareidi streams of Judaism. This is proving particularly problematic in Israel because Israel gives the rabbinate powers over people lives (eg marriage and personal status) which Western countries took from clergy many years ago for reasons of practicality.
The Hareidim (being fundamentalists) will not change their minds and the State of Israel should not waste its time trying to change their minds. What the State of Israel (specifically the Supreme Court) must do is take away their jurisdiction ) by introducing civil marriage and giving civil courts overriding jurisdiction over divorce. Simply put, the problem is not what is the answer to who is a Jew? The problem for the State of Israel is why that question should be asked in the first place when it comes to questions of marriage. As I have stated elsewhere, as far as civil law is concerned, an Israeli Jew just like an American Jew or a European Jew should have the right to 'marry out'.

[C-Girl]

"You are an ignoramus if you convert and don't intend to take on any of those big three"

That's a nice idea, but it's completely subjective (and not supported by halachot of gerut, btw). What if a woman waits only 3 clean days before going to mikvah? If she keeps Shabbat but not all of the stringencies the rabbinate stipulates? Keeps kosher but waits only 3 hours between meat and milk and doesn't keep halav/ bishul/ pat Yisrael? Can the rabbinate annul based on their own interpretations of halacha, even if they follow the minchag of the ger's community? How about when they come for you or me?- born Jewish, but I'll be damned if I can find proof!

[curious]

@c-girl
To Gerim it has been known for a long time that giur is not giur. Personally, I have met people who did two or even three giurim because they became more observant in the course of time and their new environment did not recognise the previous giur. As a Ger put it humoristically: after the first Giur, you start to get used to it.

So it is absolutely no novelty that giur recognition is disputed, as well as hechsherim, etc...

[Shmarya]

So it is absolutely no novelty that giur recognition is disputed, as well as hechsherim, etc...

Actually, it is a novelty historically.

This insane "your hechsher isn't kosher enough, your conversion isn't kosher enough" behavior is very recent, and it is not based in Jewish law.

[Yochanan Lavie]

Shmarya: It never ceases to amaze me that the people who think "Chadash assur min hatorah" constantly introduce chiddushim and then pretend it's been done that way since time out of mind.

[itchiemayer]

Actually C-Girl - a person is ignorant if they convert to Judaism without intending to follow the halachos. Now, you are correct in that it is subjective and perhaps
they pay a price in the olam ha'emes but that is up to the Master of the Universe, so I'll let him decide. I concede it would be difficult and dangerous to make an anullment, so the key is for the rabbinical courts to do a better job on the front end of the conversion process. I am waffling on this one. I was for annulments before I voted against them. Certainly shame on the Rabbanim who convert the ones who are not of the utmost in commitment. Tough call. Glad I don't have to make it. So C-Girl - remember me if you come across a Kohen eligible woman who can provide proof :)

Cholov Yisroel, Pas Yisroel - please, Judaism is difficult enough, I am against taxing myself with extra, unnecessary stringencies.

I do tell my daughter to find a Dutch guy if she can, so she only has to wait an hour from meat to dairy. Waiting six hours is a huge nisayon for me.

[Michelle]

B"H

There is already an organization for THINKING RELIGIOUS JUDAISM. It is run by Rabbi Marc Angel, and you can read what they are doing and even donate to the cause at www.jewishideas.org.

The site says, "The Institute for Jewish Ideas and Ideals offers a vision of Orthodox Judaism that is intellectually sound, spiritually compelling, and emotionally satisfying. Based on an unwavering commitment to the Torah tradition and to the Jewish people, it fosters an appreciation of legitimate diversity within Orthodoxy."

They publish a monthly magazine called "Conversations." It is a wonderful undertaking.

[Shmarya]

I'm talking about something much broader than that.

[Michelle]

B"H

I think he is too, but he has to start somewhere!

M

[alternative childcare]

"so I have no problem with the annulment."

Who the heck are you, and why should we care that you "approve" of such a horrible thing, which causes such damage particularly to the children?
This new movement, rendering all these children of doubtful lineage, is probably the most destructive event yet in contemporary Jewish law. If it becomes accepted it will allow a small group of Lithuanian fanatics to cast aspersions on virtually everyone, especially Americans, where the rate of conversion is high. All American Jews will be second class, much like the Eastern Europeans.

[itchiemayer]

alternative ccare - hey, look - who am I? Why am I here? Well, we all express our opinions on this site. If noone opined, it would be pretty boring, eh? The sky is blue...or is that my opinion so I shouldn't say it. We all express opinions and we are all someone. If you disagree with my opinion fine, but to ask me "who the heck are you" is a bit ridiculous. I'm sure you opine all the time, but who the heck are you. You're just one opinion, just like mine. Kind of silly on your part.

[Ben]

Itchie and Cautious your logic is faulty. There is no way for a convert (or non-covert) woman to prove that she did visit mikva. Does she have to keep a log of mikva visits, each visit signed off by a rabbi whom haredim would never doubt (say Elyashiv himsef)?

This is an unreasonable and therefore malicious demand on the part of Sherrrrman.

Can both prove your Jewishness if I begin to doubt? Of course not. Neither can Sherrrrmannnn. He is simply an abusive potz and you are his support group.

[maven]

Itchie, alternative ccare is very sensitive on this subject and gets emotional about it.

As you know, "opinions" are what matters in the orthodox community. If someone said in your neighborhood that you weren't a kosher yid, and that your kids were posul, and people stopped playing with them, or eating at your house, well, that wouldn't be "just" an opinion, would it?

So I think AC was hoping from more anti-Sherman support from the ostensibly frum contingent here.

So I think , he can say what he wants.

[R]

The problem i have with the above situation is that these supposed rabbis have no thought to other human beings and no thought about other people's lives and feelings.
Did they even care to think about the children through no fault of their own are being punished and excluded from society? I say excluded because now they are in some sort of black book on who they can and cannot marry.
It's a disgrace. It also doesn't mention whether the woman kept taharat hamishpacha or not and how would they know that anyway? Judging by the fact the couple have children she might have kept it at the begining, but then went lax with a few things, maybe her husband stopped keeping alot of things and she just went along with him.
The article above which stated she paid to have a quick conversion...if they know this why don't they just get rid of this rabbi who asks for extra money to do gerut? The whole thing is a mess really and it shouldnt' just be up to one lot of rabbis to annul conversions, just like there isn't only one rabbi or beth din that converts people.

[itchiemayer]

It is a complicated issue. I believe there are very few conversions which could qualify for annulment, but am not willing to say there are none. The difference between AC and myself on this issue are probably not much at the end of the day.
It is suspicious that someone would agree to convert to orthodox Judaism and then choose not to observe some basic commandments. As I said earlier, over time I can understand this could happen. But if it happens right away, this non-observance of basic commandments (taharas mishpocha), then I do have a problem with it. if the person is a ger tzedek then I am in total awe of that persons greatness. I know converts who are incredibly pious people, and I marvel at their commitment to something which they came to by choice. I was born a Jew, although I admit to not having the paperwork signed by Moshe Rabeinu to prove it. Anyhow, certainly proving that a conversion should be annuled would clearly be very difficult. it's a slippery slope and once you start, where does it end. I can understand how one could get emotional about it.

[Michael Makovi]

Shmarya,

Rabbi Angel's Institute for Jewish Ideas and Ideals is also associated with his International Rabbinic Fellowship. Rabbi Angel already has a hundred or a so rabbis who belong.

Of course Rabbi Angel wants his organization to grow, but in the meantime, anything he does filters down to a hundred American rabbis, and hopefully to their followers.

Also Professor Zvi Zohar and Professor Marc Shapiro work to propagate forgotten Sefardi halakha, and Professor Shapiro also propagates German Neo-Orthodox Judaism. So they're good contacts as well.

[alternative childcare]

itchie- thanks. The problem is that this gang of hoodlums has retroactively rescinded ALL conversions done by R. Druckman's bet din, including adopted children of religious parents, fully observant dati leumi converts (and hence, their children)and THAT is what is so ugly, awful, unprecedented and un-halachic. And all that just for a bit of political power jockeying, mixed with hatred of the Russian immigrants.

[alternative childcare]

Oh, and Moshe Rabbeinu wouldn't have been adequate, at his time according the midrash he was falsely accused of adultery for political reasons. In the political arena, everyone is a target.

[Reader]

Has it occured to anyone that Rabbi Sherman may have a runaway undiagnosed MENTAL ILLNESS, and this is causing all the problems? Just recall the case of Shabtai Tzvi and how much damage that caused.
Also, I am no expert but I thought that halachic decisions are not rendered by "quoting extensively" or by name-dropping because one can prove absolutely anything by putting together the right set of quotations.

[Reader]

If he fails a psychiatric evaluation, possibly all those people could go back to being Jews.
He has absolutely no compassion which means we are allowed to question HIS lineage.

[Ben]

I want to see proof of Shermann's Jewishness. I want to question and require absolute proof of Jewishness and absense of mamzerut in the family of every Gadol and Katan who supports him.

A number of years ago I've asked a few Haredi rabbis whether or not they have proof of their Jewishness and got a couple of honest answers - NO.

[Yerachmiel Lopin]

Sherman's statement about recognized poskim is a halachic lie. There are disputes about who the posek is. Moreover, Sherman knows perfectly well that these days, what comes down from Elyashiv is actually the result of influences by the key askanim. So in effect he is saying, I can overturn halachah because some individuals guilty of elder abuse will cough up the ruling Rabbi Sherman and his chevrah want and then get Rabbi Eliyashiv's signature.

Charedi dayanos is broken by corruption. It comes up with the conclusions it wants. The Israeli rabbanut cnfirmed its moral and halachic bankruptcy Yonah Metzger became Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi. He has been found shaking down individuals and overbilling the government for expenses, etc.

I don't know the facts of the case but I do not consider Sherman credible. He annulled more orthodox conversions in one ruling than all rabbis combined in the last thousand years. The husband's testimony is suspect because he is a party to an acrimonious divorce . If money was paid for a conversion I am disgusted, especially if it was done by a rabbi who is a state employee. But the chief rabbi did it all the time for performing marriages when he was a state employee in Tel Aviv. He was notorious for upping his demand just before the chupah!

I would like to see money taken out of conversion across the board. Certainly it is appropriate for converts to make generous donations to reflect the time and effort of those who assisted them to the extent that they can afford it. When I got married the rabbi in question insisted that he does marriages without discussing fixed amounts. We made a generous gift, but I was not buying a wedding. So if Sherman wants to discuss money and conversions he better be willing to open the question of all sorts of charges by the whole chareidi chevrah.

Finally, what halachic nonsense, The conversion is voided but a divorce is still required. Those two are logically incompatible decisions. So Sherman is admitting that there is enough doubt about the conversion to believe there might be a marriage that requires a divorce. If so, halachically you err in the direction of accepting the geirus.

[Yitzhak]

"The best way to combat this – short of walking out of Judaism altogether – is to bring back the moderate rulings now forgotten."

The elephant in the room.

If you only accept legal rulings when it won't harm "the children" or hurt people's feelings (oh noes, not teh feelings, making people submit to second geirus m'suffek!)...you aren't expressing much respect for the system of law.

Assuming a good god exists, is halacha likely to be a good source for finding his will?

NO.

Assuming nothing, is a god the best explanation for the world as we find it today?

Think about it.