New York – New York Rabbi Haskel Lookstein, told The Jerusalem Post on Thursday that the Petah Tikva rabbinate’s rejection of one of his conversions involving an American woman who moved to Israel was, in his view, cruel.
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The woman, who Rabbi Lookstein says is quite observant, moved to Israel and got engaged to an Israeli man. She had been unable to get married however since the local rabbinate where she sought to register for marriage would not recognize the validity of her conversion.
“I was very sad because first of all a woman is being hurt at one of the most vulnerable moments in her life and at a time when she should be at her absolute happiest planning a wedding and instead she is running up against the cruelty of a rabbinic court,” he told the Post. “The Talmud says that there are 36 and some say 46 warnings against afflicting a convert. They are violating every single one of them for no legitimate reason.”
Rabbi Lookstein, who also also converted Donald Trump’s daughter Ivanka and officiated her wedding to Jared Kushner, said that while he is not taking the rejection personally, he fails to understand why the rabbinate in Israel “don’t accept the conversion process of respected Orthodox rabbis in America.”
“It’s very sad that they don’t respect the work that people do over decades to try and help Judaism flourish in this country and frankly in Israel too,” he told the Post.
This is not the first case of a US convert being rejected by an Israeli rabbinate.
“It’s risky for anybody’s converts,” he said. “I’ve been serving as a modern Orthodox Rabbi and this woman happens to be a very observant woman and there is no question she is as Jewish as I am or as my colleagues here who helped me convert her.”
“There are too many institutions in the rabbinic world that are concerned with gatekeeping in conversion rather than in welcoming converts,” he said.
The woman in question converted about a year ago, and after moving to Israel met her now fiancé and got engaged.
The couple went to register for marriage in the Petah Tikva rabbinate but the woman was referred to the Petah Tikva rabbinical court to confirm that her conversion was recognized.
The rabbinical court sent a request for clarification to the chief rabbinate’s department for matrimony and conversions, but in an unusual step also asked the head of Israel’s conversion authority Rabbi Rafi Peretz for his opinion.
The chief rabbinate’s office said Lookstein’s conversions were indeed acceptable, but Peretz said he had not come across converts through Lookstein and therefore said the rabbinical court should not recognize the conversion of the woman in question, which is what was ultimately decided.
The ITIM religious services advisory group is now appealing the decision to the Supreme Rabbinical Court.
The phenomenon of converts from North America having trouble gaining recognition in Israel has become unfortunately common, and ITIM deals with dozens of such cases. In one similar incident last year reported by the Post, a conversion that was certified by a rabbinical court presided over by the head of the Beth Din of America, Rabbi Gedalia Dov Schwartz, was rejected by the chief rabbinate’s department for matrimony and conversions.
“The entire system is characterized by chaos, and dealing with converts from North American America has become one big witch hunt where everyone is trying to show they can delegitimize someone’s converts,” said ITIM director Rabbi Seth Farber.
“This couple wanted to get married two months ago but are now being made to suffer because of this appalling situation.”
In response to the dismissal of Rabbi Haskel Lookstein’s conversions by rabbinical courts in Israel, Education Minister Naftali Bennett said: “The rabbinical court’s decision is arbitrary and odd, and must be reversed.
Rabbi Lookstein is one of the leading, and most appreciated, Orthodox rabbis in the US. I met him 15 years ago, and I was a member of his congregation for some time. Not only does no one question his commitment to tradition and Halakha, but Israel’s Chief Rabbinate approved – in writing –the conversion certificates he issued. However, rabbinical court judges decided, without explanation or justification, not to recognize the conversions of this great rabbi. This mistake must be repaired immediately.”
After what I’ve seen of Ivanka Trump I can understand why the Rabbi’s converts would be questioned. I’m sure some of his converts are living a halachic lifestyle but his standards must be questioned. I would not let my children marry any children of Ivanka.
I get the feeling that there is more to this story than is being reported in this article
So maybe American Rabbonim and Poiskim should also look into which Israeli Rabbonim get approved by us and which we don’t recognize.
(Especially when they sign fundraising letters).
Why should sometimes some youngsters in Israeli botey dinim decide which of our Rabbonim are good, we should decide and let them know!
And if they don’t recognize it – those Rabbonim should loose our accreditation.
If the rabbi converts people who became a convert for marriage (A geruis lsheme ishis) its understandable that his gerim are not accepted. Once a geruis is performed lshem ishias its valid, however, its not permitted lcahtichila. A rabbi that does things that are not permitted lchatchila its understandable that he is not accepted.
if this family is observing the Torah law that she is committed to. and she will be married to a husband who observes and keeps Sabbath and committed to keep Taharas Hamishpach, they are “True Kosher” orthodox Jews according to Halacha.
They should come to the US and get Married here with no problem. then they can return to Israel as a married couple.
The rabbanut in israel want to control all of the rabbonim in the world .
Before criticizing Ivanka Trump’s attire, consider what most Orthodox Jews in the news have been wearing recently: handcuffs.
her convertion was not valid as it was done to marry someone. # the beth din have to be yirei shomaim what these rabbis are not. hes more OO, advocates toiavah etc etc
Did the author personally interview Rav Peretz or is the author just reporting what others said?
A convert may be taught the halachos and accept them but may be swayed by others as to dress, etc.
We need many more Ivankas in our tribe!!! דמד
I think Lookstien is a sham. I know a case from 20 years were a converted a male. I know that they did not keep jewish laws. It was just that the girl he was marrying came from a very welthy family that was not religious. I might call him open orthodoxy. The Rabbinate is 100% correct not to accept anythig he does
Rabbi Moshe Feinstein states the very marriage of a gentile woman to a non observant Jew, is equivalent to an open declaration that she will not observe the precepts. This is so, because it is highly unlikely that the gentile member of such a union, will be more committed to Judaism than her remiss Jewish husband (certainly when they are living together prior to their marriage). Unlike mental or tacit negations, explains Rav Feinstein, open declarations do invalidate conversions. When such cases appear before a rabbinical court, its members actually become witnesses to an acceptance declaration that is not sincere. Therefore, it is no longer a tacit insincerity, but rather an obvious one. As such, they are forbidden to sanction the conversion. Regardless of what this Jewish court may declare, the conversion is invalid and the person is not deemed a member of the Jewish nation. In Iggros Moshe, Letters of Moshe (Yoreh De’ah, no. 157), he writes that “According to the Law, it is certain that one who converts for the sake of marriage, does not intend to keep the commandments, and is not a proselyte at all.”
I don’t know all the halochos of geirus, but I do know that a Jew who is born a Jew will always be a Jew even if he doesn’t keep all the mitzvos, so a Jewish woman who is lo tzenua is still Jewish albeit doing an aveira. But, someone who is a ger or geyore is supposed to commit to keeping all the halochos, including tznius. There is no allowance for pritzus in geirus. If someone undertook geirus and was fully committed and then backslid and stopped keeping halocho, then he is considered a Jew who sinned. I don’t know about Ivanka Kushner. Perhaps she should examine her deeds and become more tznius and if her conversion was questionable, do it again. I believe she is committed to Yiddishkeit, but, I don’t know where she got a heter to dress that way.