The motzei shem ra against a talmid chacham exhibited here is shocking. Rabbi Angel is a talmid of Rav Soloveitchik. People here called him non-Orthodox, which is a vicious falsehood. Modern Orthodoxy is hated and loathed by the Haredim, which is sina of the worst kind.
Nochum (Norman) Eisenstein, like other Haredim, embodies an unprecedented stance on giyur and kabbalas hamitzvos. They are no different than Reformers; the psak of the Beis Yitzchok that they follow goes against the Talmud, Rambam, and Shulchan Aruch.
He also invented a halakha that a dayan on a beit din who accepts evolution is pasul l’dayanus. Therefore, hypothetically, according to Eisenstein, choshuve rabbonim like R’ Aryeh Kaplan, zt”l, the Netziv, Rav SR Hirsch, the Yachin u’Boaz, R’ Eliyahu Benamozegh, Rav Kook, the Maharsham, the Maharatz Chayes, R’ Slifkin, and many others are all pasul because they fail to embrace a relatively contemporary Haredi inclination towards the rejection of scientific data.
The qualifications for a dayan on a conversion beis din are minimal.
Meiri, Yevamos 46b, explains that for giyur, all Jewish men may be considered mumchim for the sake of giyur courts since the only function they are performing halachically is witnessing the tevilah and casually explaining the mitzvos and implications thereof upon the candidate.
The Shu”T Binyamin Ze’ev (1:72) says that a conversion is valid when the 3 witnesses are hedyotot. The Rambam mentions that three is the requirement for giyur, he notes, and does not davka say that the three need to be mumchim.
There are no theological or ideological litmus tests for a dayan to sit on a conversion beis din. All that is required is that the dayan be kosher l’edut, and when it comes to determining this, we don’t construct halakhic straw men.
Eisenstein also said that Ethiopian Jews require giyur, contra the Radbaz and Hakham Oovadia Yosef (this is motivated by racist sentiments, most likely.
He invited the convicted sexual abuser Mordechai Tendler into his shul to give a shiur, and his shaychus to Yosef Tropper, whose arayos, crimes, and perversions are too explicit and raunchy to mention here, r”l, is extremely damning.
And yet this is the man we’re supposed to respect as a great halakhic authority. This is a shonda.