Committee to determine criteria for recognizing Orthodox Diaspora rabbis

The Council of the Chief Rabbinate and the rabbinical judges of the Supreme Rabbinical Court convened Wednesday and established a joint committee to draft criteria for recognizing the weddings, divorces and conversions of rabbis in the Diaspora.

14/12/2016 19:47

Tags: David Lau · Chief Rabbinate · conversion

Chief Rabbi David Lau, courtesy: Wikipedia

Read this BREAKING NEWS at the Jerusalem Post

This meeting of the Chief Rabbinate of Israel and Supreme Rabbinical Court judges was held following a veritable storm throughout the Jewish world regarding the Rabbinate's refusal to recognize conversions performed by reputable Orthodox rabbis in North America.

In numerous cases, Orthodox converts have been rejected outright, as have the credentials of Orthodox rabbis, particularly from the US.

Given this, it's STRIKING that Chief Rabbi David Lau's document of basic principles DOES NOT INCLUDE THE WORD "CONVERSION" EVEN ONCE! The document's primary focus is actually on "marriage."

If the Rabbinate has no sincere intention to reform its restrictive approach to conversion, then this amounts to nothing more than a game

If Israel's Chief Rabbinate declares that it will recognize all conversions performed by Diaspora rabbinic organizations, then this would truly be a revolution. However, if the Rabbinate has no sincere intention to reform its restrictive approach to conversion, then this amounts to nothing more than a game and some minor cosmetic changes.

It's hard to believe that today's Rabbinate, given its composition, would opt for a revolution, becoming more open and flexible in relation to the pluralistic reality of the Jewish world, including Orthodox Jews.