Sunday, May 4, 2008

Chief Rabbi to attempt to revoke ruling which invalidates thousands of conversions

[this is an except which appeared in Haaretz]
[Arutz 7 published an interview with Rav Druckman who says the ruling is invalid]

Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar, acting in his capacity as president of the Supreme Rabbinical Court, will attempt to revoke a ruling from last week, which invalidated thousands of conversions carried out in Israel over the last few years, Haaretz has learnt.

The judges, it emerges, went ahead with the ruling despite the stern objection of Amar, who is said to have been surprised by the decision.

Amar tried to halt the publication of the ruling, according to which conversions to Judaism that have been conducted by Rabbi Haim Druckman - a prominent figure in Religious Zionism - are void, and the converts cannot be recognized as Jewish by the Chief Rabbinate.

The ruling, which was already drafted in February, casts severe doubts on Druckman's conversion arrangements. The decision, made by a panel headed by the staunchly conservative Rabbi Avraham Sherman, stemmed from debating the divorce case of a woman who had been converted by Druckman 15 years ago.

5 comments :

  1. Ok, so Rabbi Amar is aligning himself with Rabbi Druckman against Rabbi Sherman.

    The Gerim in question will have Rabbi Druckman and Rabbi Amar to rely upon, and obviously not that of Rabbi Sherman.

    It's like saying that Satmar ruled that all Gerus performed by the Israeli Chief Rabbinate is not valid and then the sitting Chief Rabbi of Israel comes along and rules that the conversions perfromed by the Chief Rabbinate are valid.

    What else is new?

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  2. Does Rabbi Amar have the authority to do this?

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  3. Anonymous of May 4, 2008 5:45 PM asks: "Does Rabbi Amar have the authority to do this?"

    Response: Why not? He is not just the Chief Rabbi but one of the highest Sefardi Poskim.

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  4. My question was whether Rabbi Amar as Chief Rabbi can over rule the Supreme Religious Court. In the structure of the Israeli gov't, who has the final word, the Chief Rabbi or the Supreme Religious Court?

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  5. To anonymous of May 5, 2008 2:40 AM who asks: "In the structure of the Israeli gov't, who has the final word, the Chief Rabbi or the Supreme Religious Court?"

    and the answer is, drumroll please...: the Israeli Prime Minister with whom the buck always stops in Israel and always has since 1948 in all matters temporal and ecclesiastic (which is why the Charedim and the BADATZ reject the entire Zionistic system!)

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