Rabbinate forms conversion vetting panel, raising hackles anew
Committee includes member who rejected New York rabbi Lookstein, who brought Ivanka Trump into Judaism and now apparently won’t be accepted despite chief rabbis’ promises
The
Chief Rabbis of Israel, Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef (L) and Rabbi David Lau (R)
The state-appointed chief rabbis
of Israel’s two main Jewish streams on Wednesday appointed members to a
committee which will define the criteria according to which the
Rabbinate will recognize conversions to Judaism performed abroad by
Diaspora rabbis.
The
Ashkenazi and Sephardi chief rabbis, Yitzhak Ysef and David Lau,
convened a meeting Wednesday with the Chief Rabbinate Council and the
Supreme Rabbinical Court to determine which overseas rabbis and their
converts would be accepted by all the rabbinic courts in Israel.
Previously, municipal city courts could rule on the issue.
The chief rabbis appointed five rabbis to the
committee, including three judges from the Supreme Rabbinical Court —
rabbis Aharon Katz, Shlomo Shapira and Yitzhak Elmaliach.
Elmaliach served on the court that in July disqualified a conversion performed by the New York Rabbi Haskel Lookstein, the rabbi who also converted Ivanka Trump, the daughter of US President-elect Donald Trump, before she married.
Jared
Kushner and wife Ivanka Trump May 2, 2016
The high-profile case was one the factors that led to the rabbis setting up the committee.
Elmaliach has in the past faced strong criticism from Mavoi Satum, a nonprofit organization helping women denied a get, or Jewish divorce, for controversial rulings he had made in divorce cases.
The other two members of the committee are
rabbis Yitzhak Ralbag, Lau’s father-in-law, and Yehuda Deri, elder
brother of Shas MK Aryeh Deri.
Rabbi
Yitzhak Ralbag
The head of Itim, an organization that helps
Israelis navigate the state’s religious bureaucracy, was quick to
condemn the decisions of the chief rabbis. Rabbi Seth Farber, founder
and director of Itim, said the decision “gives cause for concern,
especially when looking at the committee members and their history.”
“One of the committee members served on the
bench of the Supreme Rabbinical Court that rejected the conversion
overseen by Rabbi Haskel Lookstein, one of the most influential and
senior Orthodox rabbis in the United States. Another one has been
operating behind the scenes for years rejecting conversions from North
America and is partially to blame for the chaotic situation that has
been created.”
Farber claimed that despite their stated
intention to ease the plight of converts, the Chief Rabbinate may have
made it worse. He called for the rabbinate to enter into dialogue with
the Jewish communities of the Diaspora and recognize the challenges
facing local synagogue rabbis in their fight against intermarriage and
assimilation with an eye toward building trust with Jewish communities
around the world, not disenfranchising them.
Lau said according to the new system, local
rabbis abroad will first need approval by the heads of organizations
like the Conference of European Rabbis and the Rabbinical Council of
America before being considered by the Israeli rabbinate.
The chief rabbi singled out the Beth Din of
America headed by Rabbi Gedalia Schwartz as a reliable organization. The
Beth Din is affiliated with the RCA.
Nevertheless, even though that Beit Din wrote a letter of support for Lookstein in June, Lau explained why he cannot accept conversions performed by Lookstein, even as he had promised in July that conversions performed by Lookstein would be recognized. Last week his Sephardi counterpart Yosef made a similar promise.
Nevertheless, even though that Beit Din wrote a letter of support for Lookstein in June, Lau explained why he cannot accept conversions performed by Lookstein, even as he had promised in July that conversions performed by Lookstein would be recognized. Last week his Sephardi counterpart Yosef made a similar promise.
Any rabbi who is a member of the RCA will need
the approval of the Beth Din of America for any matter pertaining to
Jewish identity, including divorce and conversion, Lau said. That body
will be the final arbiter of Jewish status for America.
However, “Rabbi Lookstein, as we know also in
Israel, is not prepared to accept the authority [of the Beth Din of
America],” Lau said. “He is a member of the RCA but he will not allow
the RCA to rule for him.”
Gedalia Dov Schwartz
In effect this means that Ivanka Trump’s conversion would not automatically be recognized by the Israeli rabbinate.
Lookstein, 84, is now rabbi emeritus of
Congregation Kehilath Jeshurun in Manhattan after serving as senior
rabbi there since 1979. Schwartz, 91, and has headed the Beth Din since
1991.
Lau also proposed creating a register of
marriages and conversions from abroad — in effect a list of who is a
Jew, which would allow those people and their children automatic
recognition as Jews by the Israeli rabbinate.
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