Rabbi Eliyahu Ben Dahan, director general of the Ministry of
Religious Affairs and the Rabbinical Courts, rejected claims
of red-tape delays at the special conversion courts. He says
85 percent of applicants are approved for conversion at the
first hearing, the remaining 15 percent at the second or
third hearing. According to Rabbi Ben Dahan, "Anyone who goes
through the course of study at the conversion study centers
and meets the conversion court's requirements is
converted."
A spokesman for the Vaad HaRabbonim LeInyonei Giyur, founded
by the late Rav Chaim Kreiswirth, said, "Rabbi Ben Dahan
confirmed before the Knesset the allegations raised against
him over the last few years in Yated Ne'eman and by
the Vaad, that the special conversion courts operate
according to an assembly-line system, rubber-stamping [all]
graduates of the conversion study centers.
"During a radio broadcast last week Rabbi Eliyahu Maimon,
director of the special conversion courts, added the shocking
figure that 85 percent of converts appear at only a single
hearing, a figure that includes students from all of the
study centers. In other words this figure also includes
students from the Joint Study Centers run together with the
Reform and Conservative heretics and banned by all leading
rabbonim and by the Chief Rabbinate of Israel.
"An inquiry conducted at established, reputable botei
din reveals that a considerable portion of their
conversion applicants do not complete the conversion process,
and those who do manage to complete the process do so only
after probing hearings until the beis din is convinced
beyond any doubt that the applicant sincerely intends to keep
all of the mitzvas in a fitting manner. Of course they do not
rely on knowledge of Judaism alone."
The Vaad expressed confidence that "the new Chief Rabbis
would see to the setup of a conversion system based on
halochoh, with established and reputable botei din and
that the entire conversion system from beginning to end would
be run only by talmidei chachomim and yirei
Shomayim."
The Vaad notes the new Chief Rabbis have declared to the
media on several occasions that conversion according to
halochoh is only through a complete and genuine commitment to
mitzvah observance.
Dr. Asher Cohen of Bar Ilan University reports that
officially 270,000 of the one million immigrants from the
former Soviet Union during the last ten years are non-Jews,
while "the real number could be as high as 400,000." He also
noted "the percentage of non-Jews among [these] immigrants
will not change during the coming years because among
Diaspora Jews the percentage of mixed marriages increases
every year."
The Vaad has evidence that the real number of non-Jews is
more than 400,000, as Yated has reported several times
in the past.
