Rabbi Nachum Rabinovitch, who stands at the head of the new Giyur K’halacha, the independent beis din for giyur, told Kippa News that he is hopeful the Chief Rabbinate of Israel will accept giyorim processed by the beis din. He stresses the beis din was not formed to compete with the Chief Rabbinate of Israel. “Chas V’sholom, there is no competition” the rav stated.
Rabbi Rabinovitch explains that the Chief Rabbinate of Israel is ignoring the hundreds of thousands that wish to convert. “There are many children from zera yisrael, primarily those who came from Russia who must be brought closer and we must work to bring them back to Am Yisrael for is not, they will be subjected to cherem” the rabbi added. He explains that when the Chief Rabbinate begin converting them, the he and his beis din will cease operating. Therefore Rabbi Rabinovitch feels they must establish many batei din for this is what today’s reality demands. The rabbi adds that there are number of batei din in Bnei Brak today that not only convert adults, but children too, emphasizing there is a need for many additional batei din like this.
(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
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3 Responses
Giyorim? Isn’t the word “geirim”?
Rebbe Yid, yes, the word is geirim, unless you’re talking about the process of being megayeir people, which is giyorim. Rabbi Rabinovich has an exquisite head, he is a brilliant talmid chacham with a sechel hayashar, far greater than many others who are celebrated as geonim. Conveniently, he has a masters in mathematics and a phd in statistics, which enables little people to denigrate him without addressing his arguments.
Rabbi Rabinovitch explains that the Chief Rabbinate of Israel is ignoring the hundreds of thousands that wish to convert. “There are many children from zera yisrael, primarily those who came from Russia who must be brought closer and we must work to bring them back to Am Yisrael for is not, they will be subjected to cherem”
He is ignoring the reason that the Cheif Rabbinate and the vast majority of Dati Leumi Rabbonim will not convert these cases. To quote a previous YUWN article on the statment of R’ Shmuel ELiyahu:
“this beis din may actually convert children whose parents are not accepting Ohl Mitzvos, and this he says will not result in a “true giyur”.
“The Chief Rabbinate of Israel says that it cannot convert a person whose parents are not adhering to Torah and mitzvos. You educate a child for a few months but his parents educate him for years. You will place him in an untenable situation. One does not require sifrei poskim for these, just plain sense”.
Rabbi Eliyahu adds that not only will the Chief Rabbinate not recognize these converts, his colleagues in the dati leumi community will also not view them as Jews. He warns “this is prohibited as we learn לא תונו את הגר”.