European conversions to get uniform procedures
The Conference of European Rabbis decides to settle on one centrally-monitored procedure for Orthodox conversions; Israel's chief rabbi to be involved in deciding the procedures.
MINSK — A comprehensive reform of the Jewish religious conversion system in Europe means that from now on, continental religious Orthodox courts will have uniform procedures for the process, the Conference of European Rabbis announced at their Biannual Standing Committee in the Belarusian capital.
This measure is intended to the trend of what rabbis have termed "the conversion industry" (i.e., conversion for money) that they assess as granting thousands of bought conversions each year.
According to the CER's decision, only rabbinical courts that have received the conference's approval will be permitted to perform conversions. For the first time, a uniform process for conversion across the continent is to be assembled. Applications for conversion from persons outside the area of the Jewish community in which they are seeking to carry out the process will not be received in an attempt to keep out those with insincere intentions. Fundamental principles are also to be set regarding religious observance, such as keeping Shabbat and kashrut that will be necessary prerequisites for conversion eligibility.
The CER describes itself as "the primary rabbinical alliance in Europe. It unites more than 700 religious leaders of the mainstream synagogue communities in Europe," and it is headed by its president and Moscow's chief rabbi, Pinchas Goldschmidt.
The CER will determine the composition of those who sit on conversion courts and will be able to disqualify rabbis from dealing with the subject. The State of Israel, for its part, will not recognize conversions carried out by parties that it has not authorized, but it will regularly accept and approve without delay the supervised conversions performed in Europe.
"Very unfortunately, we're talking in Europe about dozens of percent of intermarriage," Rabbi Moshe Lebel, the CER's rabbinical director, explained regarding the circumstances that led to the decision. "The father can be a synagogue's gabbai, but have a son with a non-Jewish girlfriend. Unfortunately, here pirate courts come into the picture that in exchange for money out of a weird ideology, convert anybody who asks.
The new measures that are to bind European Jewish communities will be decided on in complete collaboration with the administration of Israeli religious Jewish courts. For the planned reform, a joint conference is planned with European religious judges and the Chief Ashkenazi Rabbi of Israel David Lau, intending to improve the collaboration between the two sides.
