Israel’s Chief Rabbinate formed a panel to set standards for which diaspora rabbis’ conversions it would accept as valid.
The Ashkenazi and Sephardi chief rabbis issued a joint statement Dec. 14 saying they had formed the five-member committee following a meeting earlier in the day of members of the Rabbinate Council and the Supreme Rabbinical Court.
In announcing the Dec. 14 meeting last week, Sephardi Chief Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef said a list of recognized rabbis would be created. The Rabbinate would automatically recognize conversions — as well as marriages and divorces — by the listed rabbis. Israel’s rabbinical courts have in the past handled disputes over the legitimacy of conversions performed abroad.
Orthodox rabbis in North America, especially representing modern Orthodoxy, have complained over the past few years that the haredi-controlled Chief Rabbinate was rejecting the conversions performed by modern Orthodox rabbis.
The Chief Rabbinate is Israel’s highest Jewish authority, with control over personal status issues such as conversion, marriage and divorce.
The Chief Rabbinate Council is its advisory body.
The Supreme Rabbinical Court is the highest rabbinical court, which resolves disputes regarding personal status issues.
The Chief Rabbinate has never recognized non-Orthodox rabbis or conversions.
In order to have a Jewish marriage in Israel, immigrants must prove to the Rabbinate that they meet its standards of Jewishness. — jta