Four hundred and ninety-nine conversion certificates signed
by Rabbi Chaim Druckman were issued in the month of Tishrei
alone, according to a report presented during a meeting of
the Knesset Constitutional Committee to discuss the issue of
conversion.
Moshe Klein, deputy chairman of the new conversion apparatus,
said, "The task of the conversion setup is to provide an
optimal avenue for the 300,000 immigrants living in Israel
who are not defined as Jews according to halacha and to allow
them to convert if they want to. Rabbi Druckman has signed
499 conversion certificates since Rosh Hashana. Our primary
duty is to bring thousands of immigrants to the doors of the
batei din with the cooperation of the Ministry of
Immigrant Absorption."
Eliyahu Maimon, director of the conversion courts, said that
the Rabbinate botei din denied them the authority to
sign conversion certificates four months ago, causing a
delay. "From the moment Rabbi Druckman was granted permission
to sign them," said Maimon, "he worked day and night and he
signed 499 conversion certificates."
According to Prof. Benny Ish Shalom, head of the Institute
for the Study of Judaism set up by the Jewish Agency and the
government that includes Reform and Conservative
representatives, "The founding of the conversion system has
allowed us to reach files of beit din representatives
that have not been attended to for years. Hundreds of files
of converts who completed their studies at the Institute
never reached the Conversion Court due to the fact that a
representative of the beit din hindered them. Thanks
to the new conversion setup many converts have managed to
reach the beit din and convert, against the
recommendation of the beit din representatives."
MK Rabbi Moshe Gafni warned against fictitious conversions,
saying wholesale conversion is a scandal aimed at flooding
the State of Israel with goyim. The first scandal was
transferring the Rabbinate botei din to the Justice
Minister, he explained, which then led to the founding of a
conversion apparatus headed by Rabbi Druckman, thereby taking
the matter of conversions out of the hands of the established
Rabbinate botei din. "They changed things that were
[practiced] here for 50 years, ever since the State was
founded, and now they are voicing claims," he said. "What is
happening in the area of conversion is unconscionable. A [non-
Jew] may convert only if he converts according to halochoh,
and all other methods are one big sham."
Several MKs, including Committee Chairman MK Avital (Labor),
lodged criticism during the course of the meeting over the
new guidelines Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar recently published,
which seek to strengthen adherence to halochoh in conversion.
They charge that the publication of these guidelines was
unauthorized.
Assistant Attorney General Atty. Kobi Shapira claimed that
the guidelines should have passed through accepted channels
yet the Justice Ministry, which is responsible for the
publication of such announcements, was wholly unaware of
them. "As a rule, from the moment guidelines are published in
the official State Registry they become binding. But since
the conversion apparatus was transferred to the Prime
Minister's Office and the hands of Rabbi Chaim Druckman, the
Chief Rabbi does not have the authority to intervene in
conversion proceedings and does not have the authority to
decide for the conversion apparatus personnel which
regulations to follow," claimed Shapira.
Chief Rabbinate Legal Advisor Shimon Ulman said that the
Chief Rabbinate has always dealt with the issue of conversion
and a legal inquiry must be conducted to determine whether
the removal of the conversion system from the hands of the
Chief Rabbinate alters the Chief Rabbi's jurisdiction in
practical terms. "In his post Chief Rabbi Amar is responsible
for the Rabbinate botei din, which were always the
body that handled conversion. Does this mean today the Chief
Rabbi no longer has the authority to make decisions on the
matter?" Ulman asked.
