The Vaad HaRabbonim LeInyonei Giyur, founded by the late
HaRav Chaim Kreiswirth, has been issuing warnings for years
against hundreds of fictitious conversions that receive
official certification by the Chief Rabbinate of Israel.
Recently these worthless conversion activities won official,
public backing by the Chief Rabbinate's Director of
Rabbinical Courts Rabbi Eli Ben-Dehan. According to reports
Ben-Dehan said 10 percent of last year's 3,300 converts
studied at the Joint Conversion Institutes operated together
with Conservative and Reform, and he anticipates a similar
figure this year. These sources also reported that Rabbi Ben-
Dehan met with Rabbi Chaim Druckman and Yaakov Ne'eman in
order to promote the interests of Joint Institute
graduates.
Yated Ne'eman has obtained an official document issued
by the Chief Rabbinate's rabbinical courts administration
that lists several of the Joint Conversion Institutes under
the heading, "List of Conversion Programs According to
Geographical Distribution." This marks the first time Chief
Rabbinate officials have openly supported conversion
institutes that are in fact prohibited by the Chief Rabbinate
itself, raising serious concerns regarding the false
conversion industry in Israel.
Rabbi Eli Ben-Dehan did not respond to a request from the
Yated for comment.
The Vaad HaRabbonim called for stepped-up vigilance, saying
this was the first time in the history the Israel Chief
Rabbinate has openly supported an illegitimate conversion
apparatus. "It would be unthinkable for the Chief Rabbinate
not to act immediately to halt this grave development. While
in the past their response was that the information was
incorrect, now Rabbi Ben-Dehan has publicized the facts
openly."
"There is no alternative," says the Vaad HaRabbonim, "other
than to take immediate steps to stop this development, since
the joint conversion system with its heretics has joined the
Chief Rabbinate's conversion programs system and the special
botei din system, which performs assembly-line
conversions without sufficiently investigating whether the
conversion candidate is willing to accept all of the
mitzvos."
