Israel’s Chief Rabbis Allegedly Refuse To Recognize Modern Orthodox Conversion

Approximately 20 years ago, an infant girl from a Modern Orthodox family in the US was converted to Judaism. The converting rabbis are all well-known Orthodox rabbis in the US; one is now reportedly considered to be a senior Orthodox rabbinic leader.

 

Israel’s Chief Rabbis Allegedly Refuse To Recognize Modern Orthodox Conversion
Shmarya Rosenberg • FailedMessiah.com

Approximately 20 years ago, an infant girl from a Modern Orthodox family in the US was converted to Judaism. According to The Jewish Week, the converting rabbis are all well-known Orthodox rabbis in the US; one is now reportedly considered to be a senior Orthodox rabbinic leader.

The girl and her family reportedly lead Orthodox lives, and the girl is accepted as a Jew everywhere in the world – except for Israel, where the country’s haredi-controlled Ministry of the Interior has refused to accept her as Jewish.

In violation of an agreement with Israel’s High Court of Justice, the ministry consulted Israel’s haredi chief rabbis, who have apparently ruled that the girl’s conversion is suspect because her conversion court was a synagogue beit din and not a special conversion beit din.

America rarely had conversion beit dins, and historically most conversions here were done in the synagogue context.

In 2008, the Rabbinical Council of America signed an agreement with Israel’s haredi chief rabbis. In it, the chief rabbis promised to accept all conversions done by RCA members before the agreement’s signing. In return, the RCA promised to set up special conversion courts staffed by “expert” rabbis who would meticulously test prospective converts on minutia of Jewish law and related subjects, even though there is no halakhic requirement to do so. The agreement also gave Israel’s chief rabbis a say in the composition of these new American conversion courts.

The agreement was seen by many close observers at the time as capitulation by the RCA, and some – including FailedMessiah.com – argued that converts would suffer because of it.

Right wing RCA leaders, however – including Rabbi Hershal Schachter – allegedly saw the agreement as a way to marginalize rabbis to their left and rushed to sign it despite its deficiencies and despite the unprecedented control the agreement gave Israel’s chief rabbis over US conversions. They also criticized and belittled opposition to the agreement.

But this new case and other cases like it prove Schachter and his followers wrong.

“[This new case] makes it clear that the [Chief] Rabbinate plans to review almost every Orthodox conversion ever performed in the U.S.…[American Orthodox rabbis] ought to be up in arms over this latest development and formulating a strategy for how to address this latest round of disenfranchisement,” Rabbi Seth Farber, the head of the ITIM organization that helps people deal with israel’s rabbinic bureaucracy and who is helping this particular convert, told The Jewish Week. “[The Interior Ministry] committed to the courts and to the Knesset that the Rabbinate wouldn’t be involved [except in the extremely rare circumstances], and now they’ve backed out of their agreement.”

Israel’s Chief Rabbis promised when the agreement was signed that they would contact the RCA or its Beth Din of America if they had questions about the validity of a particular conversion. However, the Chief Rabbis falied to do so in this case and, allegedly, in many others.

The head of the RCA Rabbi Shmuel Goldin told the Jewish Week that the rabbis who converted the girl “are certainly rabbis who I trust implicitly and whose conversions I would not question.”

Rabbi Shlomo Riskin, who is now the chief rabbi of Efrat and who was the founding  rabbi of the Lincoln Square Synagogue in Manhattan, also vouched for those converting rabbis and for the girl’s family.

“It defies the imagination that this conversion should be questioned,” he reportedly said.

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Comments

[Realist]

If you only knew the games the MO play, you would not accept them either.
And I'm talking about you, Shmarya.
Do some homework and you'll be amazed.

[rebitzman]

When a ger finishes his/her conversion they understand and accept that no matter how frum they become - and in blatant violation of halachah, there will be Jews that do not accept them as Jews - will never accept them as Jews.

My advice to the young lady is to get on with her life - she knows the truth and God knows the truth.

[Jake]

This woman is seeking legal status in Israel.
Since she claims a orthodox conversion the rabbinate needs to approve.

If she had a reform or conservative conversion she would be permitted to immigrate but would not be listed as a Jew in the population registry.

I am glad Rabbi Golden is now head of the RCA and that R Mark Dratch is the Executive director. This is a significant change compared to the rabbis most recently serving those roles.

Will I agree with everything they do? Probably not,but they sure are a improvement.

[D]

On another take I guess. I had an "orthodox" conversion 20 years ago, not MO in NY. The Jewish Agency in tandem w/the Interior Ministry and consulting,I was under the impression then, with the RCA as stated above (because of the ITIM court case), are now in charge of accepting or denying conversion for the purpose of aliyah. I requested, that my conversion be brought before the Chief Rabbinate knowing my chances were lesser. I could not understand, and thru my knowledge of conversions/some, thru the RCA, how they could be in charge of accepting or denying the "halachic" validity of an Orthodox conversion. The Interior Ministry/JA, did not approve my conversion, it went to the Chief Rabbinate. The Chief Rabbi approved. As I was making my plans for aliyah..I found that I in fact, have to go within 10 days to the Interior Ministry, upon arrival, where they can approve or disapprove,(where they already had questioned) even with the approval of the Chief Rabbinate, they can still turn this down and the IM has before even w/Rabbinate approval. What do you do, turn your aliyah shipment around that's out on a ship at sea and go back. Or does one risk being deported. I question the new qualifying procedures here in the US and Canada. When one converts, one agrees to accept all the laws of halacha. I've always thought it was my personal choice, for others, it is all between the Heaven's above, and that person.

[Ben]

It is disgusting, but persecution of converts, especially ones with the Jewish roots, is unfortunately a rule, not an exception for Israeli Rabbinate and Interior ministry at this time.

It is time to oppose this violation of multiple Torah commandments. Both haredi (religious jewsh racists) and the secular jewish racists who support them in interior ministry, should be opposed and proclamed not part of the Jewish collective.

[Yosef ben Matitya]

religion in israel is no longer jewish.
they all stink.

[Yosef ben Matitya]

My advice to the young lady is to get on with her life - she knows the truth and God knows the truth.

rebitzman, your advise is sound and valid. however in all fairness to the convert whom we are commanded to love, we should spit in the face of these (amaleko-sodomites) 'rabbis'.
may the following befall them:
תִּפֹּל עֲלֵיהֶם אֵימָתָה {ר} וָפַחַד, {ס} בִּגְדֹל זְרוֹעֲךָ יִדְּמוּ כָּאָבֶן
forward and backwards X 7 times.

[S M L]

Israel: the Jewish Saudi Arabia. This is a thoroughly despicable business. Narrow, closed minds. Jewish homeland my a-- ! Almost any other Western country would be a better choice in terms of religious and civil rights than Israel. I imagine this family had its illusions shattered and came back to the US where at least they can live as Jews and be left alone with their freedoms intact.

[Roley Poley Yoiley]

So they deny someone who embraces Judaism wholeheartedly, but support Zionist haters, pedophiles, and rapists. I sure wish the good Lord would chime in once and a while...

[ruthie]

omg
i hope this young lady holds her head high
and realizes that many many jewish people if she was converted the way she was will honor and love her.
may g-d bless her.
she is a tzadekess.

[Yosef ben Matitya]

Israel: the Jewish Saudi Arabia.
... Almost any other Western country would be a better choice in terms of religious and civil rights than Israel.

very well put, SML
all this trash comes wrong understanding of choseness.
they understand that choseness vests in them quasi nazi rights.
while choseness, is nothing more than being vested with extra responsibilties in terms of kindness & upholding justice.
what a shame.

[Jeff]

Can we now please acknowledge that we have two distinct religions and move on?

[Rochel]

There is one thing I didn't understand. It says "an infant girl from a Modern Orthodox family in the US was converted to Judaism." Is this an adoption situation?

[ruthie]

good point jeff

[Yosef ben Matitya]

Can we now please acknowledge that we have two distinct religions and move on?

not really, jeff (and ruthie)
because if we care about our religion, we would be handing to them a victory they don't deserve on a silver try.
they ought to be exposed for what they are.
distorters of the religion the pretend to represent.

[BaltimoreYid]

Right wing chareidim both here & in Israel have way too much power. My son was converted as an infant and his attitude is "fuck them who cares what these black coated apes think anyhow?" I agree. It's time to defund these chareidi charities. Starve them out and force them to work. Now there's an idea who's time has come.

[ruthie]

yosef ben Matitya

distorters of the religion they pretend to represent...
MAJOR UNDERSTATEMENT...

i think of my parents and this makes me sad

[Jeff]

because if we care about our religion, we would be handing to them a victory they don't deserve on a silver try.

What victory? Their numbers are outstripping their resources. The majority don't educate their children past a third grade level. They can;'t function i the wider society; look at the reasoning and communications skills of the trolls who come here. Theirs is a sick, festering world that will be gone within a generation.

Of course, so will Israel, but I no longer have any sympathy. The Israelis did this to themselves. If they want Israel to survive, they know what they have to do - but psychopaths like Netanyahu are too addicted to power, and they need the Haredi bloc votes. Nothing will change.

[ah-pee-chorus]

Can we now please acknowledge that we have two distinct religions and move on?

Posted by: Jeff

jeff, we can. unfortunately the MO cant or wont. they continue to grovel at the feet of the very charedi 'gedolim' who hold the MO in such disdain.
there isnt a single MO rabbi with the gravitas in the charedi world to change the charedi attitude. and there is no MO rabbi with enough standing even within the MO community to call for a complete break from charedim and acknowledge the truth of your words.

[רבינו מטומטם]

Things were much simpler when harav hagaon Leib Tropper שליט׳א was in charge, issue like this would be solve with the girl having sex with Tropper,his wife, and the rest of the chevre . Smart asses like Shmarya and Eidensohn outed him and created all these problems we have now. BRING RABBI TROPPER BACK !!!

[Yosef ben Matitya]

What victory? Their numbers are outstripping their resources. The majority don't educate their children past a third grade level.

what victory?
jeff, ask those who are suffering at the hands of these animals. the rejected converts, the agunot women, the kids subjected to abuse, physical and otherwise.
u r 100% right on the subject of israel, netanyahu & co., but hey they are our family, flesh and blood. their demise and the loss of israel, is also our loss.

[Jeff]

there isnt a single MO rabbi with the gravitas in the charedi world to change the charedi attitude. and there is no MO rabbi with enough standing even within the MO community to call for a complete break from charedim and acknowledge the truth of your words.

I agree completely. If there were a split, the right wing and "centrist" MO would happily be on board with the Haredim. The left wing (all two or three dozen of them) would hem and haw and drag it out as long as possible, but in the end, they'd sadly sign on with the black hats and resign themselves to being the red-headed stepchild of Orthodoxy. They're suffering collectively from a disorder; the medical term is testicula in absentia.

[Jeff]

jeff, ask those who are suffering at the hands of these animals. the rejected converts, the agunot women, the kids subjected to abuse, physical and otherwise.
u r 100% right on the subject of israel, netanyahu & co., but hey they are our family, flesh and blood. their demise and the loss of israel, is also our loss.

I agree, which is the reason I feel we should make the split - which has already occurred by the way; we just don't want to acknowledge it - official. It would be best for the converts, best for the agunot (if we could get them on board)... it would be the best thing in the long run for everyone but the Haredim, and while I feel sorry for their children, there's nothing we can do to help them until the various governments are willing to act in the kids' best interest.

As far as Israel is concerned - well, I can't fault you, but I don't share your sentiment. I don't share your sentiment about Jews being family, either; my experiences with the Jewish community have not been conducive to that. Quite the opposite, in fact.

[Yosef ben Matitya]

Jeff,
believe it or not, despite my being israeli, having served in the idf & my entire family living there, i am possibly equaly negative about israel (hence the sense of being robbed);
as to my community in 'hebron on the great lakes', i keep to myself for fear of getting lapidated & communicate my thoughts only to the almighty. :-)