The Chareidi community in Jerusalem is still reeling at the news of the Christian missionary family that was living among them, completely integrated into Chareidi society.
There are many questions about the story but one of the first questions some ask is how did the couple prove their “Jewishness” when they made aliyah?
According to a B’Chadrei Chareidim report on Thursday, Michael, the father of the family, was recognized as Jewish by Israel’s Interior Ministry after presenting a get written by the Philadelphia Beis Din.
According to the report, Batei Din abroad will grant gittin to people who are only “safeik” Jews in order to completely eliminate the possibility of transgressing the issur of eshes ish. This was reportedly the case with Michael.
The Yad L’Achim anti-missionary organization turned to the Philadelphia Beis Din to clarify if it genuinely recognized Michael’s Jewish status or it only granted the get in order to prevent the issur of eishas ish.
The Beis Din sent the following letter: “This is to declare that it’s not possible to rely on the Jewish status of those who give or are granted a get – that they’re actually Jews without any doubt.”
“A couple that comes to the Beis Din and requests a divorce are asked to show us their kesuvah (and very often it’s a Reform or Conservative kesuvah, r’l), and at times the kesuvah is lost. But they present themselves as a Jewish husband and wife and request a get. And there are cases when couples get divorced after over 50 years together and often it’s not possible to locate their place of birth and where they grew up. We check out their names as much as possible and we write and grant the get. It’s impossible to thoroughly examine their past.”
“But when people come to the Beis Din to request a document confirming their Jewish status, the process is completely different. We ask for a birth certificate, milah, pidyon haben, certificates of the mother and father, grandmother, etc., etc. And we recognize their Jewish status only after a thorough and comprehensive assessment.”
“We are hereby declaring that it’s not possible to rely only on a Beis Din’s get to clarify someone’s Jewish status.”
(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)
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6 Responses
What’s with the blurring?
Tbe problem is Israelis including government officials are so unknowable and naive about Christian missionaries.Israel needs much stronger laws to immediately deport these people and they need to have some more way of following these evil people to prevent them setting up in another Jewish community.
Why would you blur out his face? Shouldn’t you show it so everyone knows what this שונא ישראל looks like? He was only able to get away with this because nobody recognized him for what he was. At least give people the ability to recognize him going forward so it doesn’t happen again.
Why is his face blurred? Let’s see who he was.
A photo of his saccharine smiling face was clearly included in articles from other Israeli news sources.
Don’t see the concern here. It’s no secret, and there’s no legal problem.
Halevai the mods of ywn would go out of their way similarly to conceal i.d. of real Jews whose stories are in doubt or negative. L”H lamed-hay….think about the face and name you show today…
This story is fishy. The widespread Minhag is for Beis Din to tear up a Get immediately after the woman receives it. Secondly, the story says that the man presented it. Even if for some reason it was not torn up, the woman should have it, not the man.