NIF Rallies in Support of Hundreds of Israelis Who Have Their Orthodox Conversions Annulled

June 17, 2008

Attorney Susan Weiss has appealed to Israel’s Supreme Court on behalf of 15 petitioners against last month’s decision by the Rabbinical Court of Appeals to nullify thousands of Orthodox conversions performed by the Israeli government’s Conversion Authority.

Weiss, the Founder and Executive Director of NIF grantee Center for Women’s Justice, represents the Danish-born Israeli woman and her three children, whose divorce trial began the entire controversy. Weiss also represents in the petition a range of other women’s organizations including NIF grantee Ne’menai Torah V’Avoda, which promotes democratic values in the Orthodox community.

Ironically, this instance began with an uncontested divorce hearing in the Ashdod Rabbinical Court last year. The couple had agreed to divorce terms in advance. Yet the religious court judge who presided, Dayan Avraham Attia, ruled that the woman was not Jewish because her conversion in 1993 was invalid, and therefore she had never married in the first place and did not need a divorce.

“Dayan Attia devoted eight pages of a nine page report to a crass diatribe against the woman and Rabbi Haim Druckman, the head of the Conversion Authority,” explained Weiss.

U.S. born Susan Weiss champions the victims of the Rabbinical Courts.

The matter came to the Rabbinical Court of Appeals, which not only upheld the decision by the Ashdod Rabbinical Court, but annulled the thousands of conversions carried out by Rabbi Druckman’s Conversion Authority. At the heart of the dispute is the rigorous attitude towards conversion held by the Rabbinical Court of Appeals, which is controlled by ultra-Orthodox rabbis, and the less strict approach of the Zionist national Orthodox movement.  The latter espouses flexibility, especially following mass immigration from the former Soviet Union when so many newcomers are not halachically Jewish.

In the wake of this split between the ultra-Orthodox and Zionist national Orthodox movement, NIF has provided Ne’menai Torah V’Avoda with emergency funding to organize a conference next month on the concept of Alternative Rabbinical Courts, which now have the support of much of the Zionist national Orthodox establishment. The conference will be attended by many liberal Orthodox organizations supported by NIF, which will continue to assist in combating the violation of basic rights caused through this harsh ruling by the Rabbinical Court of Appeals. 

Meanwhile, the Prime Minister’s Office has fired Rabbi Druckman in what is seen as a cynical ploy by Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to gain support from the ultra-Orthodox political parties. On the other hand, Justice Minister Prof. Daniel Friedmann has initiated proceedings to oust Rabbi Moshe Sherman, Head of the Rabbinical Court of Appeals.