Recently, the Eretz Chemda Institute, headed by the chairman of its
executive board, Shalom Wasserteil, and by its kollel heads,
Rabbi Moshe Ehrenreich and Rabbi Yosef Carmel, circulated a newsletter
to the friends of the institute and to others regarding the appointment
of Rabbi Daniel Man as coordinator of the founding of Eretz Chemda's
beis din. One of the purposes of this beis din is
"to handle, in conjunction with the Conversion Administration
in the Chief Rabbinate, problems stemming from the immigration wave
of the past decade." According to the circular, former Chief Rabbi
Mordechai Eliyahu and HaRav Zalman Nechemia Goldberg, a member of
the Supreme Rabbinical Court, will serve as presidents of this new
beis din.
In response to a query from the spokesman of the Vaad HaRabbonim Haolami
LeInyonei Giyur headed by HaRav Chaim Kreiswirth, the chairman of
the Conversion Administration denied any connection to the above mentioned
court. A senior official in the Chief Rabbi's office also confirmed
that the Chief Rabbinate has not given any approval to this beis
din.
The Vaad's spokesman sharply protested the founding of a private conversion
court, whose sole intention is to encourage an extensive "conversion"
industry, and to issue Judaism certificates to immigrants from the
C.I.S. "There is no place in Israel for private conversion courts,
and maranan verabonon maintain that the entire issue of conversions
must be entrusted only to the permanent and prominent rabbinical courts."
The circular included an address in Chicago to forward donations for
Eretz Chemda. According to the Vaad spokesman, this represents an
even further deterioration in the purpose of the new beis din,
if it will serve as a publicity stunt to raise funds under the guise
of solving problems of the new immigrants.
Recently, the special conversion court in Or Etzion, headed by Rabbis
Druckman and Avior, has been the most active of the special conversion
courts in the country, and many candidates rejected by other rabbinical
courts are transferred there, where they undergo quickie conversions,
in contempt of the directives of the Chief Rabbinate.
After Succos, a delegation of rabbonim and dayanim from Europe
met with Chief Rabbi of Israel Yisroel Meir Lau, and sharply decried
the difficult problems the special court in Or Etzion is causing in
the area of conversion in Europe, due to its total defiance of Europe's
rabbonim and its lack of authority to conduct conversions on behalf
of the Chief Rabbinate. The main places that these conversions take
place is where the regular Jewish community is weak, such as in Germany
and Austria.
