Rabbi Eli Ben Dehan, director of the Rabbinical Courts of
Jerusalem, has sharply attacked the av beis din of the
Jerusalem Rabbinate, HaRav Avrohom Dov Levine, due to his
meticulous care in clarifying the Jewish status of those
registering for marriages as well as the validity of the
conversions and divorces of such applicants.
Rabbi Ben Dehan made these remarks in a secular weekly,
distributed free of charge in Jerusalem. According to Ben
Dehan, the Jerusalem Rabbinate beis din functions in an
unauthorized manner. He says that HaRav Levine, who also
presides as the director of the Marriage Department in
Jerusalem, refers those who approach the department with
certificates testifying to their Jewishness or with
conversion certificates or gittin from regional
rabbinical courts, for additional investigation in the
Rabbinate beis din, which he heads.
Ben Dehan claims that HaRav Levine is unnecessarily strict
regarding the granting of conversion and Jewish status
certificates, and even finds invalid divorces among those
issued by local rabbinical courts. The weekly also quotes a
certain av beis din in Jerusalem as saying that "if
those cases appeared in other regional rabbinical courts,
they would be approved, but HaRav Levine acts stringently and
disqualifies them."
Rabbonim and dayanim reacted sharply to Ben Dehan's
remarks, and said that HaRav Levine stems from a rabbinical
family which has served in the Jerusalem Rabbinate for three
generations, is very close to maranan verabonon and has
their trust. HaRav Levine was appointed eight years ago as
av beis din of the city by the Chief Rabbis of
Jerusalem, HaRav Kolitz and HaRav Mashash, with the
endorsement of the Chief Rabbis of Israel. This appointment
was effected after he successfully passed the test for
dayanus.
During recent years, the Jerusalem Rabbinate has published
five editions of halachic rulings edited by HaRav
Levine, which were widely acclaimed by dayanim the
world over and became guidelines in the rulings of all
botei din.
"The defamatory accusations of Ben Dehan against HaRav
Levine's supposed `stringencies' are, in truth, high
accolades of HaRav Levine's thorough work and constitute bad
marks for those rabbinical courts which are lenient,
according to Ben Dehan, on those topics which are the crux of
the purity of Jewish lineage and which result in
assimilation," said the rabbonim and dayanim.
They claim that Ben Dehan's attack against the Beis Din for
the Clarification of Jewish status, headed by HaRav Levine,
stems from the fact that HaRav Levine doesn't hesitate to
attack or to expose the most senior dayanim in the
rabbinical court system in the event that they are too
lenient in the granting of Jewish status certificates to non-
Jews.
Rabbi ben Dehan replied: "The dayanim of the Beis Din
for the Clarification of Jewish Status in the Jerusalem
Rabbinate are not bona fide dayanim. The state has a
Dayanim Law, and they were not appointed by the Committee for
the Appointment of Dayanim. There is no doubt that the
clarification of Jewish status must take place only in the
rabbinical courts, and the Chief Rabbinate has stressed this
a number of times. It has been decided on many occasions that
since the large influx of immigrants from Russia, all
clarifications of Jewish status must take place in rabbinical
courts only."
The Vaad HaRabbonim Haolami LeInyonei Giyur, headed by HaRav
Kreiswirth, sharply criticized Ben Dehan. It said:
"Dayanim who are outstanding talmidei chachomim
and yirei Shomayim do not need the approval of Rabbi
Ben Dehan, who is a clerk on behalf of the State rabbinate.
Many G-d-fearing rabbonim linked to the Rabbinate refused to
sign the thousands of fictitious conversion performed every
year by the Conversion Administration. But Rabbi Ben Dehan
signed all of these fictitious conversions without
hesitation, although they were conducted outside of the
botei din by courts which include members unqualified
to serve as dayanim, and even those with a minimal
knowledge of how to conduct conversions according to
halocho."
Regarding Ben Dehan's claims that HaRav Levine has no
authority to conduct clarifications of Jewish status, the
Vaad notes that the directive issued by the Chief Rabbinate
on the 6th of Adar 5758, explicitly states: "A certificate of
Jewish status may be given by a regional rabbinical court or
by a clarification committee which will be established for
this purpose by the Council of the Chief Rabbinate."
The Vaad HaRabbonim notes that the beis din of HaRav
Levine is the only one authorized by the Chief Rabbinate to
conduct clarifications of Jewish status, and its work is
considered highly reliable and professional, in a difficult
area.
Even though HaRav Levine doesn't need anyone's approval, the
Vaad blessed him and his beis din that they continue in
their sacred work of preventing the penetration of non-Jews
into the Jewish nation. In addition, the Vaad HaRabbonim
demanded that the Chief Rabbinate ask Rabbi Ben Dehan to
apologize for his remarks.
