Israel – Chief Sephardi Rabbi Defends Decision on IDF Conversions

Israel – Chief Sephardi Rabbi Shlomo Amar defended on Monday his decision to approve the military conversions which are undertaken according to orthodox Jewish law. His reaction came in the wake of claims from parts of the Ashkenazi-haredi camp that such conversions should not be considered valid, since the process the candidates underwent was faulty and the converts never really intended on maintaining a Jewish lifestyle, as evident in the fact that many of them do not keep mitzvot in the years that follow.

In a letter apparently intended to senior Ashkenazi haredi rabbis, Amar noted the general guidelines of conversions – the necessity that the convert be circumcised, immersed in a ritual bath, face a qualified three-man panel of rabbinic judges and “take upon himself the mitzvot of the Torah,” all of which are conditions that can prevent or even retroactively annul a conversion. The chief rabbi then proceeded to make the distinction between those who never really accepted “Torah and mitzvot at the time of [their] conversion,” and are not considered converts. On the other hand, converts who had the right intent at the time of their process, but did not remain observant afterward are Jewish and must be married and divorced accordingly, he wrote.

“A convert who was circumcised and immersed in a ritual bath, and accepted the Torah and mitzvot in front of three [rabbinic judges], and everything was done according to Halacha, and later on returned to his old ways and transgresses the Torah’s mitzvot – such a person is considered a Jewish apostate,” Amar wrote. “But his Jewish matrimony and divorce” are valid, the chief rabbi stressed, citing Maimonides and the Shulkhan Aruch who ruled hence.

At the end of the typed letter Amar added in hand that not only do the IDF converts accept the “burden of Torah and mitzvot,” after learning the principles of Judaism and being tested on them, they also are accompanied by religious families, who appraise them to the rabbinic judges converting.

Amar also noted that in his ruling he was following the lead of senior Sephardi adjudicator Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, whose affirmative decree on the subject of the halachic validity of the military conversions was what led the chief rabbi’s decision on the topic some ten days ago.

Monday’s letter, which was also endorsed by Yosef who signed its bottom, does not seem to bear much tidings, since Amar had reiterated that the military conversions are, and were, conducted in accordance with Halacha, and therefore receive his approval and signature, as the law demands. But sources close to Amar explained that the doubts cast by the Ashkenazi haredi rabbinic world on the military process, which inevitably lead to aspersions on the two senior Sephardi rabbis – Yosef and Amar – who endorsed them, led the chief rabbi to release the latest letter. On Sunday, there were reports in the haredi online media that senior Ashkenazi-haredi authority Rabbi Shalom Yosef Elyashiv had signed a letter declaring the military conversions halachically invalid, and that other senior haredi rabbis were adding their names to it.