Jewish Agency Chairman Natan Sharansky endorsed the new independent conversion courts, reportedly calling it an important step “in the process of ingathering the exiles from throughout the world in an era of lost identities and growing assimilation.”
Above: Rabbi David Stav
Moderate Orthodox Rabbis Launch Independent Conversion Courts To Break Monopoly Of Haredi-Controlled Chief Rabbinate
Shmarya Rosenberg • FailedMessiah.com
And now there is competition.
Earlier today, a group of leading Zionist Orthodox rabbis announced the formation of its own network of conversion beit dins (Orthodox rabbinical courts) to compete with the official state rabbinical conversion courts run by the haredi-controlled Chief Rabbinate of Israel, the Jerusalem Post reported.
Israel’s haredi chief rabbis have made converting to Judaism a long, arduous process even the most motivated candidates often walk away from in disgust.
The haredi refusal to moderate the process and repeated attempts by haredi state religious court judges to use the conversion process to hurt Zionist Orthodox and Modern Orthodox rabbis and their converts prompted the move to for more liberal Orthodox conversion courts independent of the Chief Rabbinate.
Rabbi Nahum Rabinowitz, the dean of the Ma’ale Adumim Hesder Yeshiva and a leading decisor of halakha (Jewish law), will reportedly head the new conversion court system.
Jewish Agency Chairman Natan Sharansky endorsed the new independent conversion courts, calling it an important step “in the process of ingathering the exiles from throughout the world in an era of lost identities and growing assimilation,” the Post reported.
Ten rabbis will serve as judges on the new courts, including:
• Rabbi David Stav, chairman of the moderate Zionist Orthodox Tzohar Rabbinical Association
• The Modern Orthodox Chief Rabbi of Efrat Shlomo Riskin
• Rabbi Yaakov Medan, a co-rosh yeshiva (dean) at the Har Etzion Yeshiva in Alon Shvut
• Chief Rabbi of Otniel Rabbi Ra’am HaCohen, who is also the rosh yeshiva of the Otniel Yeshiva
Stav is associated with Riskin’s network of schools.
Ma’alei Adumim, Otniel, Efrat and Alon Shvut are moderate West Bank Jewish settlement towns.
The new courts, named Giur K’halacha (Conversion According to Jewish Law) have reportedly already converted about 50 people. Its rabbis called on Sefardi haredi Chief Rabbi of Israel Yitzhak Yosef, who heads conversions for the Chief Rabbinate, to accept the new courts. But this is unlikely to happen.
As it now stands, the Chief Rabbinate claims it does not recognize conversions done by courts it does not control, even when those courts are haredi-run. That means people who convert through these independent courts are not registered as Jews by the Ministry of the Interior, even though the courts are Orthodox and the converts are, as well.