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Israel's top rabbinical official made public for the first time Tuesday the Orthodox rabbinical courts of the diaspora recognized by religious authorities run by the state for the purpose of conversion to Judaism and divorce, following a battle three-year legal process conducted by an Israeli rights organization.
The list of non-Israeli entities whose conversion has been approved includes some 70 orthodox rabbinical courts around the world, half of them in the United States. He also signed 80 rabbinical judges, whose activities are supervised by the US Rabbinical Council of America and the Beit Din of America (complete list in Hebrew).
In 2007 and again in 2014, CAR announced that it had made agreements with the Chief Rabbinate that the Rabbinate would automatically accept all CAR-certified conversions.
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The divorce list includes more than 80 rabbinic courts worldwide (full list in Hebrew).
The rabbinate also, for the first time, set out its criteria (in Hebrew) for the approval of the rabbinical courts, which stipulate in particular that they must be permanent courts (as opposed to those which meet only case by case). base) and Orthodox. Those who are not yet approved by the rabbinate will have to pbad oral examinations of the Israeli religious authorities to be added to the list, he added.
Rabbi Haskel Lookstein, former leader of Kehilath Jeshurun on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, converted Ivanka Trump prior to her marriage to Jared Kushner.
After the Israeli high rabbinate rejected a conversion made by the well-known modern Orthodox rabbi, Haskel Lookstein, on the right, the president of the Jewish Agency for Israel, Natan Sharansky, left, protested on his behalf. (Ben Sales / JTA)
In July 2016, the Rabbinical Supreme Court questioned a conversion by Lookstein. He forced an American-Israeli woman, identified only as Nicole, who sought to get married for accelerated conversion under their auspices. At the time, even as the rabbinical court rejected the conversion, the chief rabbinate declared that he recognized Lookstein's authority.
Rabbi Gedalia Dov Schwartz, chairman of the rabbinical tribunal of the United States Rabbinical Council, was also on the list. In September 2016, Haaretz revealed that the rabbinate had rejected four Schwartz conversions.
ITIM, an organization that helps Israelis navigate the state's religious bureaucracy, asked a Jerusalem court in 2015 to pressure the rabbinate to be more transparent about how it determines Jewish conversions. which are legitimate. He also drew attention to Itamar Tubul, a mid-level bureaucrat who evaluates applications from Israeli immigrants seeking a marriage license and badures that they are Jewish.
In March 2016, the Chief Rabbinate first agreed to draw up an official list.
"I am proud of ITIM's continued efforts in public policy and legislation over the past six years to make the work of the Chief Rabbinate more transparent. This is the first step in improving relations between Israel and the rest of the Jewish world, "said ITIM Director Rabbi Seth Farber.
"The work to make the big rabbinate more inclusive is far from over. These lists take us to a starting line to improve the state's recognition of the diversity of the Jewish world. We will continue to use all possible tools to
ensure the inclusiveness of lists, "he added.
Rabbi Seth Farber, head of the ITIM organization, in an undated photo. (ITIM)
The Orthodox-dominated rabbinic has never recognized conversions or unorthodox rabbis, and in recent years he has questioned the credentials of some of the great orthodox liberal rabbis.
JTA contributed to this report.
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