New York – Nearly 100 orthodox North American rabbis signed a letter demanding of Israeli Interior Minister Eli Yishai to “rectify the injustice being done to our converts, ourselves and the Jewish people” and “insure that those individuals whom we convert will automatically be eligible for aliyah as they have been in the past.”
Join our WhatsApp groupSubscribe to our Daily Roundup Email
The appeal, delivered to Yishai on Tuesday morning, comes in the wake of the ministry’s policy to accept primarily the converts of ten regional courts established a few years ago by the Rabbinic Council of America for the purpose of granting Israeli citizenship. This directly follows the Chief Rabbinate’s policy of only recognizing the Judaism of converts from those courts (the RCA established eleven, but the rabbinate only recognizes ten of them), and creates a reality in which an orthodox convert from abroad could face more difficulties from the Interior Ministry in making aliyah than a convert from a Reform or Conservative community.
“We are concerned that conversions performed under our auspices are being questioned vis-à-vis aliyah eligibility,” the rabbis, belonging to the RCA, International Rabbinic Fellowship, Orthodox Union and Yeshiva University write Yishai. “We find this unacceptable, and turn to you in an effort to insure that those individuals whom we convert will automatically be eligible for aliyah as they have been in the past.”
Continue reading at The Jerusalem Post
whats this new trend of modern rabbis puting out kol koires all the time? They used to stand for shalom.
The affiliation of the Rabbis does not in any way mean that all or even the majority of the members agree with the petition.
Let any convert that when through an orthodox conversion then have a reform “rabbi” sign a certificate of conversion for him. I’m sure there are many such “rabbis” willing to cooperate. Then he can make aliyah as a Jew!
What’s the RCA whining about? The rabbinate recognizes ten out of eleven of the RCA’s batei din — which the RCA itself set up recognizing that up till now many of the conversions were done with loose standards. They probably could easily bring the 11th up to standard. So what’s the problem?
There is super validity to this centralized control over conversions; Rabbonim may continue to prepare a candidate for geirus and then present him/her to an accredited Bais Din much as, lehavdil, a driving teacher sends his students to motor vehicles for licensing. The Vaad of Queens, for example, has a self appointed Bais Din consisting of one Rabbi who recruits two available “anybodies” to sign on with him. He collects his fee which seems to be the only constant standard applied. He should NOT be allowed to continue unsupervised nor without cosistent standards. The same for his rogue bais din vis a vis gittin, etc. Fees cannot be pocketed, dayanim are salaried not hustlers.
I am a member of the Vaad Harabonim of Queens and, over the length of my career (31 years) have submitted about 8 people for Geirus. No one has ever taken a penny or given a penny for a conversion. It is the policy of the Vaad that no Rav charge for conversion.