A comprehensive investigation which appeared in the Yated
Hashavua of parshas Bamidbar, discloses the
conversion methods utilized by the military conversion
court. The names of the members of that court have also been
revealed after many years in which they were kept secret.
Today, there are approximately 7000 non-Jewish soldiers in
the IDF. Every year, 100 soldiers are converted. The head of
the IDF's manpower branch (Agaf Koach Adam -- AKA),
General Yehuda Segev, long ago issued an order to the IDF's
rabbinate to facilitate the integration of these soldiers by
means of accelerated conversions. The IDF's Chief Rabbi is
obligated to heed the directives of AKA's head. During the
final period of for Chief Rabbi Gad Navon's term of office
as the Chief Rabbi of the IDF, hardly any conversions were
conducted in the army. As a result, a backlog of
approximately 300 files, which still haven't been closed,
has accrued. These files are in the stages of completion. As
a result, the new chief rabbi was asked to speed up the
procedures in these cases.
For many years, conversions in the army were performed by
the authority vested in the chaplains who presided in their
so-called capacities of roshei ho'eidah. The
composition of the military conversion court was kept
confidential for many years. Currently, this beis din
is composed of the following members: the former
dayan Rav Avraham Elmaliach, who is now the av
beis din of this conversion court, the Chief Chaplain of
the IDF, Major General Rabbi Yisroel Weiss; and the head of
the army's Personnel Management Department, Lieutenant
Colonel Rav Shachar Matneh. The deliberations of the beis
din are coordinated by Lieutenant Colonel Aharon
Mendelovitz, who has been in that position for many years,
since the term of office of former Chief Chaplain Gad
Navon.
The dayan Rav Avraham Elmaliach presides on the panel
in this beis din in his official capacity as a
dayan, while the two others are not dayanim.
The deliberations of this beis din are generally held
in the General Staff compound (Kirya) in Tel Aviv, and the
entire area is tightly guarded by the IDF, making if very
difficult to get near it in order to see what takes place
there.
Information which Yated Ne'eman received, led its
staff, at the beginning of last week, to wait unobtrusively
for the members of the IDF's conversion court at the
entrance to the military cemetery on Mount Herzl in
Jerusalem. The meetings of the beis din are
occasionally held in the Security Ministry's booth on the
cemetery's premises.
Last week a number of male and female soldiers, as well as
three female civilians who had already finished their
military service, appeared before the panel of the military
conversion court.
The investigation which was published in this past week's
Yated Hashavua includes the statements of soldiers
who sought to convert. These statements were secured after
the soldiers emerged from the Security Ministry's booth in
the cemetery on Mount Herzl, as was as a tape-recorded
conversation with Lieutenant Colonel Rabbi Shachar Matneh
(res.) who, as the Chief Chaplain of the IDF claims, is his
assistant.
Lieutenant Colonel Rabbi Matneh claims that at the meeting
of the conversion beis din held at Mount Herzl, the
applicants were not converted. The meeting, he said, was a
preliminary one whose purpose was to determine whether the
applicants are qualified for conversion. Yated
Hashavua published photographs of the members of the
beis din as they entered and left the cemetery on
Mount Herzl.
One of the questions posed in the investigation was: Why are
the meetings of the beis din held on the cemetery on
Mount Herzl? Doesn't the army have rooms in Jerusalem where
the meetings could be held? Lieutenant Colonel Rabbi Matneh
claims that the meeting was held in Jerusalem because Rav
Elmaliach found it difficult to come to some of the meetings
in Tel Aviv.
Leading rabinical members of the IDF Chaplaincy who are
quoted in the article, deny any connectin with the IDF
conversion program and completely disassociate themselves
from it.
In light of the findings of the investigation, the Vaad
Haolami LeInyonei Giyur headed by HaRav Chaim Kreiswirth,
the ga'avad of Antwerp, demands that the IDF stop its
involvement in conversions immediately and transfer the
control over the conversion system to prominent and
permanent botei din. The Vaad claims that there is no
reason for the IDF to conduct conversions, since conversions
are supposed to be conducted only by the Israeli Chief
Rabbinate, especially since most of the IDF converts have
already joined civilian life.
The IDF's spokesman responded that the IDF's conversion
court functions in conjunction with the Chief Rabbinate of
Israel and in accordance with its guidelines. "The meetings
of the beis din generally take place in the office of
the IDF's Chief Rabbi in the Kirya in Tel Aviv. But at
times, out of consideration for the situations of the av
beis din, the Chief Rabbi of the IDF or the members of
the beis din, the place can change. The time and
location of the meetings of the beis din are made
known to all of the involved chaplains, so that the beis
din does not meet in secret."
The spokesman of the IDF did not state the reaction of the
Chief Chaplain of the IDF about the demand to stop the
military conversions.
