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9 Tammuz 5759 - June 23, 1999 | Mordecai Plaut, director Published Weekly
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A Virtual Jew?

by Yated Ne'eman Staff

A woman in Romania has applied to the Interior Ministry to come on aliya on the basis of an Internet "conversion," the ministry announced.

It said that the woman, whose husband is not Jewish, had applied to come together with him and their children. The "conversion," whose validity the ministry does not accept, was carried out by an American rabbi, the ministry said.

Michael Boyden, head of the Reform movement's Israel Council of Progressive Rabbis, said that he had investigated the case after the woman appealed to the movement for assistance, and found that the facts were much as the Interior Ministry presented them.

Boyden said that the rabbi involved was Richard Schachet, a Reconstructionist rabbi associated with the Valley Outreach Synagogue. On the Internet, the synagogue describes itself as Reform and located in the Los Angeles area, and says Schachet has retired.

The Vaad HaRabbonim Haolami LeInyonei Giyur headed by HaRav Chaim Kreiswirth, said that this incident shows the absolute chaos that reigns in this area. Even the Reform, who themselves have no general standards for what constitutes a proper conversion, reject this geirus -- apparently because the officiating person was a Reconstructionist and not Reform. This shows the extreme importance to pass the Conversion Law that has been the goal of United Torah Judaism for several years, and is one of its current coalition demands, that would give sole authority to the Israeli Chief Rabbinate to determine which conversions are accepted and recognized by the State of Israel, as has been the case for more than fifty years since before the founding of the State.


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