Rabbinate Revokes Conversion Of Ethiopian Woman After She Was Struck By Rabbi In Hit And Run

Caught on video, the rabbi is convicted – but the Rabbinute revokes the woman's conversion, apparently in revenge.

Rabbis' Wrath
Matthew Wagner , THE JERUSALEM POST

The wrath of the rabbis seems to be chasing N., an Ethiopian immigrant who converted to Judaism in 2003.

In recent weeks N. received a letter from the State Conversion Authority, which operates under the aegis of the Chief Rabbinate, informing her that her conversion and Jewish status had been revoked.

At the end of June, the Jerusalem District Court handed down what the Ethiopian community considers to be a disappointingly light sentence to a young, well-connected rabbi who ran down N. with his car in a hit and run attack in January 2006.

The letter announcing the annulment of N.'s conversion was publicized by MK Shlomo Molla (Kadima), who said he was contacted by the Ethiopian woman.

Molla said the reason for the annulment was N's "un-Orthodox lifestyle," and that N. insisted on remaining anonymous and refused to speak to the press.

Sources within the Conversion Authority, who were not familiar with the details of N.'s case, said a conversion is annulled after the fact only when information that was not known by the rabbinical conversion court at the time of the conversion is received.

The most common reason for annulling a conversion, said the source, is the discovery, after cross-referencing data supplied by Interior Ministry with information from the Conversion Authority, that the convert was married to a non-Jew at the time of the conversion.

"There is no way that any conversion court would convert someone if the judges knew that the prospective convert was married to a gentile," said a conversion court judge who works with Ethiopian converts.

"Therefore, if it turns out later that this is the case, we say that there never was a conversion to begin with."

The same Ethiopian woman who had her Jewishness revoked, was the victim of a hit and run attack perpetrated by a yeshiva student aspiring to become a rabbinical judge.

At the time, N. was working as a cashier in a parking lot in Jerusalem. The haredi driver attempted to leave the parking lot without paying. N. blocked the car's exit with her body. But the driver proceeded, lifting the woman onto the hood of the car and carrying her 15 meters before knocking her to the ground.

The woman lost consciousness from the impact and sustained head injuries.

The driver attempted to deny the incident until he was confronted with video from a security camera installed at the scene of the hit and run.

The yeshiva student, who brought to court recommendations from Chief Sephardi Rabbi Shlomo Amar and Shas spiritual mentor Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, asked Jerusalem District Court Judge Moshe Drori to be lenient, claiming that an excessively stringent ruling that said his offense constituted moral turpitude would block him from being appointed as a judge in the rabbinical courts, which is a public office.

In a controversial decision which is being appealed to the Supreme Court by the state prosecution and might have ruined Drori's chances of getting himself appointed to the High Court of Justice, Drori ruled that since the young driver's apology had been accepted by the Ethiopian woman, there was no need to determine that the driver's offense constituted moral turpitude.

Much of the 321-page decision was devoted to arguing for the importance of implementing Halacha - including laws governing the process of repentance - in the civil court system.

Drori argued that by sincerely apologizing and paying NIS 10,000 in damages to N., the driver had repented his sin. Drori also obligated the haredi man, a father of three, to perform 150 hours of public service that did not interfere with his teaching at a yeshiva.

As a result of the ruling, the Israel Association for Ethiopian Jews strongly lobbied against Drori's candidacy as a Supreme Court justice.

"A judge who appears to be racially biased needs to be double-checked before he is even considered as a candidate to be a justice on the Supreme Court," said Avi Masfin, spokesman for the association.

Masfin said the Ethiopian community was particularly angered by a quote from Drori's decision in which he wrote, "At first [N.] was hesitant, held back by the feeling that she was treated like a dog by the defendant and was therefore not worthy of standing before the court.

"But when she saw that the judge listened to her respectfully, the lawyers took her seriously and the defendant was repentant, there was a real improvement in her self-image."

Molla did not rule out the possibility that there was a connection between the court battle against the young rabbi and the annulment of N.'s conversion. "Perhaps someone in the Rabbinate is angry with N. and wants revenge," the MK said.

Comments

[Joel Katz]

Shmarya, your intro states: "...Rabbinate revokes the woman's conversion, apparently in revenge."

I'd go with the word that MK Molla used - "perhaps".

[Dr. Dave]

As we are about to enter the 3 weeks we are reminded that the actions and inactions of the rabbis led to the churban bayit.

Things haven't changed much in 2000 years.

[Hometown Postville]

Rules, rules, rules. Only God knows the chosen ones- for mortal man to think he has the power to determine this is evil and egotistical! Pray for THEIR conversion to loving ALL their fellow man instead of following Satan. We are ALL God's children!

[Yochanan Lavie]

Convert Traffic (apologies to Jimi Hendrix)

You jump in front of my car when you,
You know all the time that
Ninety kilometers an hour, girl, is the speed I drive
I say it's not alright, I will revoke your conversion, too
I just want to take you for a non-Jew

You're just like convert traffic
So hard to make you a Jew
Convert traffic
I don't need to mikvah-ize you
Convert traffic
All you do is slow me down
And I'm tryin' to spread sinat chinam around

I'm not the only soul who's accused of rabbinic slime
Tired treks all across Sudan
I can see you had a bad time
But Kushit can't you see my signals turn from green to red
And with you I can't see a black Jew straight up ahead

You're just like convert traffic
So hard to make you a Jew
Convert traffic
I don't need to run over you
Convert traffic
All you do is slow me down
And I got whiter Jews on the other side of town

[shmuel]

"But the driver proceeded, lifting the woman onto the hood of the car and carrying her 15 meters before knocking her to the ground. The woman lost consciousness from the impact and sustained head injuries.
The driver attempted to deny the incident until he was confronted with video from a security camera installed at the scene of the hit and run."
Yep, sounds like he's ready to become a rabbi in the Israeli court system, all right.

[Ben]

Wow! A Rabbi who is a plain and clear liar. How could this be? What kind of truths this bastard will teach the kids in yeshiva? This guy continues to teach the next generation of the pious ones.

[MisterApikoros]

This asshole of a judge is a disgrace to the judicial system, and needs to be removed from the bench forthwith.

And why is there such a thing as a "Conversion Authority" financed by the taxpayers of Israel, and by American Jews who contribute to organizations that are part and parcel of the Israeli government?

Fuck you, Moshe Drori.

[Ben]

MA, lets don't use the languge. It lowers our standards and we can eventually get to the level of this criminal rabbi.

What is the name of the "well connected rabbi" and who are his connections? Publicising not only his actions, but also his name and names of his connections, could be the best deterrent against him going up in the rabbinical court system.

[MisterApikoros]

If a member of the SS (Die SchutzStaffel zu Sie, Alternative Childcare), ran over a Jewish woman in Nazi Germany, a Nazi judge (and not all German judges were Nazis) would have given the stormtrooper a slap on the wrist at most, just as this Untermensch Drori gave this Haredi criminal, er, yeshiva bochur. Then, the Gestapo, diligently cross-checking the records, would have arrested this woman, convert or not, and put her on a cattle car bound for Auschwitz.

This kind of "justice" is routine in Iran. Israel is becoming more like the Islamic Republic every day.

[The Monsey Tzadik]

R' Shmarya,

There is another angle to the case,
right after Drori handed that sentence he was nominate to the supreme court, and yes Drori is Orthodox.

http://dyn.politico.com/members/forums/thread.cfm?catid=2&subcatid=8&threadid=2621584

[Ben]

Rabbinical corruption at its best.

[MisterApikoros]

Ben, it wasn't the rabbis, it was this judge. When a judge acts like a judge, and not like Torquamada, then I'll use civil language. Not before.

We couldn't get to the criminal level of these rabbis who excommunicated this woman, nor to the level of this corrupt judge, even if we donned Nazi armbands and sang the Horst Wessel Lied on their doorsteps.

[The Monsey Tzadik]

But the driver proceeded, lifting the woman onto the hood of the car and carrying her 15 meters before knocking her to the ground. The woman lost consciousness from the impact and sustained head injuries.

He would be a better rabbi in the rabbinical court if he had dragged her for 18 meters (gimatria of chai)

[ah-pee-chorus]

++Drori also obligated the haredi man, a father of three, to perform 150 hours of public service that did not interfere with his teaching at a yeshiva.+++

that he was not immediately banned for life from all teaching positions speaks volumes for how amoral yeshivas are.

[Alternative Childcare]

MrA: Again with your Nazis, and now some Spanish Inquisition. Its really getting to be a pain, particularly since my mother was in fact arrested and by the gestapo at one point and rescued by partisans. I know to you its fun to keep posting all this Nazi stuff daily on a Jewish site, and the Horst Wessel lied, etc, but to some of us its very tiresome, and we'd prefer if you didn't feel obligated to keep die Fahne hoch 24/7.

[Yonah]

Actually, I find a comparison with the Spanish Inquisition very on-point. The Nazis I'll admit I could leave. On the other hand, it's really, really nice to see people get angry about this issue who have no personal stake in it - except insofar as all Jews have a stake in prevent each other from committing aveiros.

[ah-pee-chorus]

yonah, i love the talmud comics.. very funny and original.

[MisterApikoros]

Sorry, asshat. The Nazis, the Spanish Inquisition, and the Talaban are exactly what this idiot rabbi and even more idiotic judge are all about. Yes, even the Nazis, because they practiced their "Blut und Boden" pseudoreligion, which was paganism, not Christianity.

I, personally, am a bit pained by your calling me a Nazi, saying I belong on Stormfront.org and other Nazi sites. Actually, Schwanzkopf, more than a just a bit. I'm no more a Nazi than Mel Brooks, who, you might recall, composed a little gem called Springtime for Hitler.

I'm younger and a whole lot bigger than Mr. Brooks, just in case you pony up the courage to meet me face-to-face, which I sincerely doubt you'll ever do.

[Yosef ben Matitya]

let's stop the farce and call the state what it really is:
Sodom -not Israel-
and it's rabbis (m.o's and haredis alike)
should be reclassified as:
adas reshoeem
derekh chatoeem
moshav leitzim

[Alternative Childcare]

MrA: Again with the Nazi terminology. You clearly have some fetishistic need to keep using Nazi language on a Jewish site. We get it, you read a book about WWII, and it turns you on. Not an uncommon gay/SM fetish.

I've no interest in meeting you face-to-face, nor ponying up to anything, ponyboy. I doubt you are my type, and I doubt you want to come to Israel. If you want to meet appropriate people for your foul and violent language, perhaps you should look up N-date (or Aryan-date?).

Anyway, the goal here was to deal with Jewish issues in a constructive manner, you have clearly identified yourself as one who opted out a long time ago, whose whole family intermarried, so let us deal with our own matters without your violent Nazi language.

[Ben]

MA, you state: "Ben, it wasn't the rabbis, it was this judge. ". I agree that the judge is at fault, but the rabbis are equally guilty. 1) Chief Rabbi Omar send a letter to the judge defending this criminal yeshiva bohur and rabbinical judge to be 2) Head of Israeli Sefardi Jews Rav Ovadia Yosef send a letter to the judge 3) The rabbis kept the criminal studying in their yeshiva and teaching kids.

[MisterApikoros]

Then you're a poster child for all that's wrong in the Promised Land. The way you deal with Jewish issues is by calling other Jews Nazis.

From my experience, it's the one who calls someone else gay who is actually the faygeleh. I guess your real problem is that you're in denial. I should have figured this out long ago. In retrospect it was quite obvious.

Maybe next year, when Gay Pride Day rolls around in Jerusalem, you will have come out of the closet so you can enjoy your special simcha.

Be sure to lead the Gay Pride march down the alleys and snakeholes of Mia Shearim; its misogynistic inhabitants, who like you also have major problems with their sexuality, will certainly enjoy the spectacle.

[MisterApikoros]

Ben:

They're all guilty as hell. It was wrong on my part to single out one as being worse.

I'm not much on Hebrew phraseology, being that I know maybe 20 words of Hebrew, but in the netherworld of Chillul Hashems, this particular outrage stands out.

[Yonah]

Thanks, APC! And nice to see you around.

[mordecai]

ALTERNATIVE CHILD CARE:

Mystics can be very dangerous. Never forget that the Nazis had a strong mystical component. For example Heinrich Himmler had marriages of SS Men conducted in ancient presumably Viking cemetaries so that the couple would be imbued with the spirit of the dead Viking warriors

When Chabad fanatics claim that the souls of the non-Jews are on the level of animals as the Tanya states, this is the same kind of mystical master race crap. That this racist hogwash comes from the mouth of Jews should not, in any sense, cause hesitancy in making comparisons.

I am sick and tired of many of my fellow Jews who think their shit does not stink and believe themselves to be superior and holier than thou. As human beings Jews are capable of moral depravity and religious perversion.

[Yosef ben Matitya]

"I am sick and tired of many of my fellow Jews who think their shit does not stink and believe themselves to be superior and holier than thou. As human beings Jews are capable of moral depravity and religious perversion."

mordechai, you are right! the racism problem is more prevalent among jews than many of us like to admit! even among conservative jews.
many conservative jews want nothing to do with the nitty gritty of the observance of the commandments. their only phobias are "gentiles" and not blending with them.
that's why they mix so well with chabad. chabad will not scold them about the commandmants and at the same time take them on a vanity trip by exalting their "superiority".