Rabbonim, dayonim and heads of Vaad HaRabbonim Haolami
LeInyonei Giyur, founded by the late Antwerp Gavad HaRav
Chaim Kreiswirth, issued strident protests against Rabbi
Shear-Yeshuv Cohen, the rov of Haifa and a member of the
Chief Rabbinate Council, for grave remarks he made against
dayanim who stand firm against accepting prospective converts
who fail to persuade them of their genuine intentions to keep
Torah and mitzvas in full.
Speaking at a national-religious conference on conversion,
Rabbi Cohen said he heard that there are dayanim at the
special conversion courts who are careful not to approve the
conversion of such candidates. "We have halachic authorities
that can be relied on when it comes to accepting [a convert]
even when we are not sure that the convert we converted will
keep mitzvas," he said. "The conversion court system was
created to accept converts and not to defer them, therefore
the conversion courts are not carrying out their designated
task."
Rabbi Cohen also cited a spurious ruling by former Chief
Rabbi Goren, who stirred a tremendous controversy 30 years
ago when he said, "In Eretz Yisroel there is no need to
insist on accepting [the yoke of] mitzvas."
Rabbi Cohen claimed, "We have halachic authorities who can be
relied on when it comes to accepting [a convert] even when we
are not sure that the convert we convert will keep mitzvas in
the case of someone who wants to live in Eretz Yisroel and
even more so regarding someone who has already intermarried
and has a mixed family. We try to teach them how to run a
Jewish home, which is incumbent on all of us. And I'm not
saying chas vecholiloh that one should be lenient in
this regard, but neither should they be rejected."
Rabbi Cohen's remarks stand in stark contradiction to a
halachic ruling in 5744 (1984) signed by HaRav Yaakov Yisroel
Kanievsky, HaRav Shlomo Zalman Auerbach, HaRav Menachem Man
Shach and ylct"a HaRav Yosef Sholom Eliashiv, which
reads, "It is a very serious prohibition to accept converts
without being convinced they have genuine intentions of
accepting the yoke of Torah and mitzvas."
The Vaad HaRabbonim LeInyonei Giyur also raised strong
objections, telling the Chief Rabbinate Counsel to convene an
emergency meeting to issue a decision condemning the
departure from the ruling by all gedolei Yisroel.
A short time ago MK David Rotem (Yisrael Beiteinu) proposed a
bill that would give chief rabbis of cities the power to
perform conversions. But such legislation would be very
problematic. "The fact that the rabbi of one city openly says
that one need not be convinced of the convert's intentions to
keep mitzvas in full, and a conversion candidate cannot be
rejected, is the best proof of all that the new law could
result in bringing thousands of non-Jews into Kerem Beis
Yisroel," reads a Vaad HaRabbonim statement. "Therefore
the authority to perform conversions must be vested only in
established, well-known botei din."
