At the initiative and with the blessings of maranan
verabonon the gedolei Yisroel, a beis din
for Azerbaijan Jewish immigrants has been set up. Led by the
beis din of HaRav Mordechai Gross of Bnei Brak, the
beis din will work to investigate the Jewish roots of
immigrants from Azerbaijan, stopping forgeries and fraud
which are liable to result in assimilation.
This special beis din was drafted by HaRav Moshe
Kashi, Chief Rabbi of Azerbaijan, who consulted with
maranan verabonon the gedolei Yisroel at every
stage. He stressed that this issue is of highest priority
today in light of the large wave of non-Jews immigrating to
Israel in the guise of Jews. Maranan verabonon the
gedolei Yisroel have urged action to preserve the
purity of our yichus and to prevent assimilation and
intermarriage. They note that in the current situation there
is no choice but to maintain records.
The Chief Rabbi of Azerbaijan, HaRav Moshe Kashi, who has
been active in strengthening the Jewish communities of
Azerbaijan and the Caucasus region -- some of which are quite
ancient -- has been concerned about immigration of many non-
Jews from Azerbaijan, who forge identity documents and dupe
Israeli immigration and absorption authorities into believing
that they are Jewish. He investigated possible ways of
preventing this serious problem. It became clear that through
his official position he could gain access to documents that
could help fulfill this important goal.
He then told the gedolei Yisroel about his idea to
found a beis din for Azerbaijan Jews to rule in all
doubtful cases of Azerbaijan immigrants.
The beis din began to function a few days ago. HaRav
Mordechai Gross, an experienced and widely respected rav, has
agreed to devote himself to this project and to attach the
new beis din to his existing one in Bnei Brak.
Upon finalization of this decision, the heads of the beis
din and their dayanim sought the blessings of
HaRav Yosef Sholom Eliashiv, HaRav Aharon Leib Steinman and
HaRav Shmuel Auerbach, who blessed them with success and
expressed the hope that they would help curb assimilation and
the penetration of non-Jews into our nation.
The beis din will meet in Jerusalem and will
communicate its information and decisions to all marriage
registrars throughout the country.
