Rabbi David Stav, who heads the Tzohar Rabbonim organization, announced earlier in the week that he supports the new giyur bill backed by MK Elazar Stern. The bill would remove the responsibility for giyur from the Chief Rabbinate of Israel and return it to local rabbonim by certifying 30 additional conversion centers nationwide, a move the Chief Rabbis fear would compromise the integrity of the process. Stern’s bill would also grant giyur authority to 90 dayanim instead of only 30 certified dayanim today. Stern feels such a reality would radically facilitate the process and eliminate the endless waiting that candidates most endure under the current process.
Rav Stav feels that the bill would simply “return the process to local rabbonim as it was in the past and as was the case for decades under the Chief Rabbinate and throughout the generations.”
Rabbi Stav feels such an arrangement is necessary towards addressing the large numbers of candidates and simplifying the process in finding families to adopt giyur candidates as is required. Rabbi Stav feels that bringing giyur back to the local level is beneficial to all involved.
(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
Join the official YWN WhatsApp status
4 Responses
Another Avi Weiss phony conversions and marriages. What’s next women rabbis as Rosh yeshivas
A kollel faker may not be the most qualified person to comment on this matter. It is ironic that a self-named faker would use the term phony to describe a tremendous talmid chacham and baal midose. Of course there is no reason you should take my word on any of this — go read this person’s Torah, hear him speak, and meet him for yourself. You would not speak the way you do if you had.
iyH they will leave us alone in the Diaspora over giyur – to kollel faker, there is no such thing as phony giyur, Rav Shlomo Zalman zya paskened that devarim sheblev einam devarim
There was never a central conversion authority even when the Temple stood! Rav Stav is 100% correct in that conversions have always been handled by local rabbis. It is the Chief Rabbinate that is pushing halachic innovations that are inconsistent with the mesorah here; kudos to MK Stern and Rav Stav for working to prevent this.