Israel – 20 Rabbis Finish Intensive Training Course for Conversion Authority

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    Israel – A possible harbinger of a new Orthodox conversion body in Israel emerged on Thursday evening, at an event marking the end of a training course for rabbis to specialize in Jewish conversion law.

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    Twenty neighborhood rabbis and heads of yeshivot marked the completion of a year of intensive studies under the Harry O. Triguboff Israel Institute for Conversion Policy at Beit Morasha in the capital, designed to provide them with the tools to work as voluntary rabbis in the State Conversion Authority.

    The idea is that the rabbis will boost these conversion courts’ ability to function, thus increasing the numbers of converts from the estimated 300,000 FSU immigrants who are not Jewish by Halacha, in the same way that rabbis are recognized by the state to voluntarily perform weddings.

    But for them to join the existing conversion courts would take a cabinet decision and, more important, the acquiescence of Chief Sephardi Rabbi Shlomo Amar. Should he refuse this addition to the system, these 20 rabbis – and many more who will undergo similar training – could pose a clear alternative to Israel’s Orthodox conversion system, which is failing to draw non-Jewish Israelis to its conversion courts.

    It is possible that this subtle, implicit threat to the Chief Rabbinate of an alternative system could galvanize the rabbinate into accepting these volunteers.

    Speaking at the event, Justice Minister Yaakov Neeman slammed the Chief Rabbinate for its conduct – or lack thereof – on conversions, but stressed the need for these newly trained rabbis to act from within the system, as the law allows them to.

    “We have all forgotten the Torah’s command to love the convert; it is terrible what is happening here,” he said. “The obstacles Israel places to conversions are a national disaster.”


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    6 Comments
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    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    12 years ago

    Hopefully, these rabbonim and others that soon will be trained in the laws of kiruv will facilitate the quick and final resolution of the thousands of yidden in EY who are in limbo awaiting formal approval of their conversions. Many of these men and women have already served in the IDF and it is a busha that their final status is still not resolved.

    rebezin
    rebezin
    12 years ago

    I have the impression that the real problem is that most of these potential converts are not committed to observing all the mitzvos. More rabbis to process the candidates just facilitates efficient rejections instead of endless waiting.

    UriLevi
    UriLevi
    12 years ago

    To Elazar. I don’t think Henshe is saying that we “welcome converts with open arms” & not first try to dissuade from converting – even creating stumbling blocks – & of course, be sure of their motivations for converting. However, in Eretz Yisroel there are compelling reasons to try to minimize the stumbling blocs ( after first trying to dissuade them ) within the framework of Halacha. Many G’dolim such as Rav Amar and Rav Ovadiah Yosef and Rav Schechter and Rav Lichtenstein have agreed with this approach. This is because of the 10’s of 1000s of Russian Jews who are not halachacally Jewish but have shown a commitment to Am Yisrael by their service to the IDF and their individual responses after being investigated if they are truly desirous to follow Halacha or not,. To be sure, many are not, but to totally ignore the crucial problems of these 3- 400,000, which some in the Charedi communities have done- is also a major problem. In the least – it is probably a violation of “Holaych B’Drachav”. Are we not to have Racmanus on these “Jews” who consider themselves Jews (even tho halachacaly we know they’re not) and try to integrate them into Israeli society and avoid intermarriage?