Orthodoxy's right-ward turn affects all: 4-Conversions
Here's the latest from the New York Times: How Do You Prove You’re a Jew?
(Hat-tip to ADDeRabbi for the NY Times link.)
The Jewish people is rapidly devolving into two separate entities--those born Jewish or converted in accordance with Orthodox interpretations of halachah/Jewish religious law, and the rest of us. How can this possibly not affect "the rest of us?" When our children or grandchildren, with mothers or grandmothers converted under non-Orthodox auspices, decide to make aliyah (move to Israel), will they be able to marry "as is," or will they have to undergo conversion? When our children or grandchildren decide to become baalei t'shuvah/"returnees" to Orthodoxy, will they be accepted "as is," or will they have to undergo conversion?
And here's the latest from the New York Jewish Week: RCA Seen Caving on Conversions. Now, even the legitimacy of Orthodox conversions is being called into question.
HaShem is one, but is His People still one?
Friday, March 7, 2008 update:
My Obiter Dicta says, "Except in rare cases, the acts of one Bet Din have always been accepted and respected by other Batei Din. א"כ במה מצינו כח בית דין יפה? By what right does the Israeli Chief Rabbinate arrogate to itself the authority to sit in judgement upon the acts of colleagues abroad? Do they know anything about Diaspora Jewry?"
Saturday night, er, Sunday morning update, March 9, 2008, 12:23 AM:
This past Friday's New York Jewish Week is chock full of opinions, pro and con, on the RCA's new conversion rules.
Rabbi Kenneth Auman says that this agreement is a great boon.
Rabbi Kenneth Hain and Rabbi Hershel Billet think that last week's headline, "RCA Seen Caving on Conversions " was inaccurate.
Rabbi Haskel Lookstein offers a conversion critique from within, but "hesitates to withdraw from the new system because of the impact it could have on the hundreds of people he has already converted and their descendants."
And lined up on the same page is "The Chief Rabbinate-RCA Deal: Two Views," with Rabbi Barry Freundel making "The case for 'centralized' conversions" and Rabbis Marc Angel and Avi Weiss arguing that the new policy is "Taking power away from the rabbis."
(Hat-tip to ADDeRabbi for the NY Times link.)
The Jewish people is rapidly devolving into two separate entities--those born Jewish or converted in accordance with Orthodox interpretations of halachah/Jewish religious law, and the rest of us. How can this possibly not affect "the rest of us?" When our children or grandchildren, with mothers or grandmothers converted under non-Orthodox auspices, decide to make aliyah (move to Israel), will they be able to marry "as is," or will they have to undergo conversion? When our children or grandchildren decide to become baalei t'shuvah/"returnees" to Orthodoxy, will they be accepted "as is," or will they have to undergo conversion?
And here's the latest from the New York Jewish Week: RCA Seen Caving on Conversions. Now, even the legitimacy of Orthodox conversions is being called into question.
HaShem is one, but is His People still one?
Friday, March 7, 2008 update:
My Obiter Dicta says, "Except in rare cases, the acts of one Bet Din have always been accepted and respected by other Batei Din. א"כ במה מצינו כח בית דין יפה? By what right does the Israeli Chief Rabbinate arrogate to itself the authority to sit in judgement upon the acts of colleagues abroad? Do they know anything about Diaspora Jewry?"
Saturday night, er, Sunday morning update, March 9, 2008, 12:23 AM:
This past Friday's New York Jewish Week is chock full of opinions, pro and con, on the RCA's new conversion rules.
Rabbi Kenneth Auman says that this agreement is a great boon.
Rabbi Kenneth Hain and Rabbi Hershel Billet think that last week's headline, "RCA Seen Caving on Conversions " was inaccurate.
Rabbi Haskel Lookstein offers a conversion critique from within, but "hesitates to withdraw from the new system because of the impact it could have on the hundreds of people he has already converted and their descendants."
And lined up on the same page is "The Chief Rabbinate-RCA Deal: Two Views," with Rabbi Barry Freundel making "The case for 'centralized' conversions" and Rabbis Marc Angel and Avi Weiss arguing that the new policy is "Taking power away from the rabbis."
posted by Shira Salamone at 5:54 PM
12 Comments:
Nope. There are HaShem's people, and the Chareidi. And that's really the only way to deal with this.
At least until they come to their senses.
If it were only the chareidim, that would be bad enough. But the RCA represents Modern Orthodox Jews. That's part of what's disturbing about this trend. Not only are we non-Orthos being disenfranchised, but even the Modern Orthodox rabbinate now has to kowtow to the chareidim in order to ensure that its conversions will be recognized. The Rabbinical Council of America is not doing this to make things difficult--they're doing this because they're afraid that conversions might be invalidated years after the fact if they don't. They're doing this to protect converts. It's disturbing that they feel they have no choice.
even the Modern Orthodox rabbinate now has to kowtow to the chareidim in order to ensure that its conversions will be recognized.
But the answer is simple. Stop kowtowing. Find some balls, stand up to these hooligans, and do what you actually believe in.
If you think your process for conversion is halachically valid, then stand by it.
But that means REALLY fighting back. As long as everyone accepts everyone on the right of them, the FCD (frummiest common denominator) wins.
If the RCA wanted to fight back, they'd have to say that they won't recognize Chareidi conversions except by and approved list.
However, if Conservative Recognizes all conversion, MO recognizes all Orthodox conversion, and Chareidi only recognize Chareidi, then if you want your conversion to be universally recognized, you have to have a Chareidi conversion.
For women, this is ESPECIALLY important, because it's not just them that are affected, but their kids can be retroactively declared not Jewish, which is where the big stick comes from.
It's terrible to sincere female converts, who spend many of their child baring years jumping through these hoops, but it seems mostly done out of the bizarre belief that these are all Shiksas out to snag Jewish husbands with fake conversions.
"However, if Conservative Recognizes all conversion, MO recognizes all Orthodox conversion, and Chareidi only recognize Chareidi, then if you want your conversion to be universally recognized, you have to have a Chareidi conversion." Ouch. That's beyond a big stick--it borders on coercion.
"Stop kowtowing." Easier said than done. A convert who *doesn't* kowtow is risking the Jewishness of their grandchildren, who could be declared non-Jews decades after an ancestor's conversion. Bad for Shidduchim (check my blogroll for the link) once posted that one of the questions she was asked by a shadchan (matchmaker) was whether there were *any* converts in the family--and, as I recollect, the shadchan was talking about her grandparents, or even her great-grandparents. (Apparently, the ignoramus didn't believe that there were any truly Orthodox Jews in the U.S. before World War II.) Being a descendant of a convert could be a serious problem for an Orthodox Jew seeking a spouse.
Call it coercion or call it intimidation, but, sadly, it's working. To put it bluntly, the Israeli chareidi rabbinate is scaring the *bleep* out of anyone who cares about the Jewish status of his or her descendants, or the descendants of the folks whom he, as a rabbi, is converting.
Because of Israel's law of return, etc. this problem really does affect all Jews- at least all Jews who want to move to Israel. So if you have a convert in your family, stay away from Israel.
It's a sad day, indeed, when Jews are afraid to move to Israel for reasons other than fear of war.
And we should live long enough to see no reason to fear war in Israel, either, halevai (would that it would happen).
A convert who *doesn't* kowtow is risking the Jewishness of their grandchildren, who could be declared non-Jews decades after an ancestor's conversion.
Not at all.
Having been through this issue personally, let me remind you that your decision ultimately affects ONLY yourself - because your children, and their children, ALWAYS have their own opportunity to "convert" again with some new criteria, if they want to be recognized by some other group.
Until the chareidi stop accepting ANY conversions (which is where this is all ultimately heading, anyway).
So it's entirely possible that successive generations would have to convert all over again. I can imagine a situation in which a convert's child, grandchild, and even great-grandchild might each, in turn, have to undergo conversion.
"Until the chareidi stop accepting ANY conversions (which is where this is all ultimately heading, anyway)."
That's a scary thought.
If you have a minute, please check out my link from last Friday asking what gives Israel's rabbis the right to challenge the authority of rabbis in the Galut/Diaspora, as well as the links that I just added from this past Friday's New York Jewish Week, with responses both for and against the decision of the Rabbinical Council of America from RCA members.
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