RCA Backtracks On Conversion Policy

A year ago, in a Jewish Week dialogue of Opinion pieces, I criticized the Rabbinical Council of America’s RCA new conversion standards as it “scrutinizes” conversions performed before their new system was put into place.

Writing in defense of the RCA, the chairman of its Geirus Conversion, Policies and Standards GPS committee, strenuously objected to my position, stating that “it is important to emphasize that nothing in this system is designed to change anyone’s previous status as a convert” The Chief Rabbinate – RCA Deal: Two Views,” March 7, 2008.

I know now firsthand that I was, unfortunately, correct, as the RCA has refused to affirm a conversion that I, together with two other rabbis, performed. To make matters worse, the RCAmade its ruling without notifying or consulting me or any other member of the converting Beit Din Rabbinic Tribunal.

The case involved a young woman who attended my synagogue’s supplementary Jewish Youth Encounter Program JYEP. This is not an unusual case as, over the years, the JYEP has had a profound impact on the religious lives of hundreds of young men and women. Subsequent to the conversion, this woman fell in love with a man whose rabbi turned to the RCA to validate her conversion. The RCA refused to do so, insisting that for its validation, the young women needs to convert once again. This refusal to validate without reconversion is being interpreted by the community, in the current climate created by the GPS, as an invalidation of this convert’s Jewish status.

The RCA based its ruling on the fact that one of the converting rabbis was a convert himself. This concern is unjustified. A convert may serve on a Beit Din when the judgment is regarding another convert Talmud Yebamot 102a, Yoreh Deah 269:11 and Hoshen Mishpat 7:1. Additionally, a convert may be a judge on a non-coercive Beit Din, i.e. one to which the person appearing before the court has willfully submitted him or herself Shakh CM 7:1; Sema CM 7:4 and Shakh YD 269:15. A convert serving on a Beit Din of conversion should thus be valid for both of these reasons.

While some halachic authorities still argue to invalidate a convert to be on a Beit Din for conversion, it is obvious that those who maintain the convert’s validity as a judge have the weight of the halachic sources behind them.

It is harsh enough for the RCA to declare that henceforth, from the time of the new RCA standards, that a rabbi who has converted cannot be on the Beit Din. It is, however, unacceptable for the RCA to refuse to validate previous conversions that were performed before its new system was set into place as there are solid and bonafide opinions that accept these conversions.

via RCA Backtracks On Conversion Policy.

So sad when people are held to impossible (and hypcritical) standards.  Does it not say that her (Torah’s) ways are ways of pleasantness and her paths of peace?