Wednesday, April 19, 2023

Proselytising? I

Who is really to blame?
by Jonathan Rosenblum
Jerusalem Post
June 1, 2007
http://www.jewishmediaresources.com/article/1094/

[This is the second half of the article]

"IT IS NOT those who uphold strict standards for conversion who show a lack of love and concern for the convert, but rather those who ignore the halachic requirement of a sincere commitment to mitzva observance. The latter expose those "converted" under their auspices to the danger of a painful shock many years later when they discover that their conversion is not universally recognized.

A universally recognized standard is the greatest protection for the sincere convert, and the implementation of such a standard by responsible rabbinical courts is the key to the complete integration of the sincere convert into the Jewish people, without any concern that someone will someday question his or her conversion.

Two weeks ago, I participated in a three-day seminar sponsored by the Eternal Jewish Family (EJF) organization in Phoenix, Arizona. The participants were 32 intermarried couples in each of which the non-Jewish spouse is contemplating conversion. (The leading contemporary halachic decisors have ruled that in the case of intermarried couples, the general rule that "the right hand pushes away" the would-be convert does not apply.)

The Phoenix seminar was the second of its kind. Of the 32 couples who participated in the first, 28 are on track to a full halachic conversion for the gentile spouse. One couple from the first seminar was halachically married at the Phoenix seminar. Another seven seminars sponsored by EJF are scheduled around the world for the coming year, each at a cost of hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Working with intermarried couples is only part of what EJF does. The organization also promotes a universally accepted standard for conversion. It has already sponsored numerous conferences for rabbinical court judges in the United States and Israel, and one is scheduled in the near future for Europe.

The two-fold efforts of EJF provide irrefutable proof that concern for universally recognized standards of conversion goes hand-in-hand with the greatest love and respect for the convert."

7 comments:

  1. Follow the money

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  2. Why is this relevant, some 16 years later?

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  3. He's trying to lighten our mood with a good morning laugh.

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  4. Because the same fellow would then appear on an EJF event

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  5. Which fellow, and what was wrong with that?

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  6. Ask our blogmaster

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  7. “ danger of a painful shock many years later when they discover that their conversion is not universally recognized.” Hey this is my case motion 207 at the NYS Court of Appeals in Albany still pending and motion 1994-9870 at AD2 in Brooklyn still pending. I quote from:
    Appellate Division 2nd Dept Decided on April 29, 1996:
    "Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York, Second Department Aranoff v. Aranoff 226 A.D.2d 657 (N.Y. App. Div. 1996) 642 N.Y.S.2d 49 Decided Apr 29, 1996 April 29, 1996
    Appeal from the Supreme Court, Kings County 658 (Rigler, J.). 658
    Ordered that the orders are affirmed insofar as appealed from, with one bill of costs. In July 1991, the wife commenced this separation action after the husband had left the United States to settle permanently in the State of Israel. In the separation action, the wife seeks, inter alia, support for the minor children. During the pendency of the separation action in New York, on February 17, 1993, a Rabbinical Court in the State of Israel issued a divorce decree.

    Today's daf hayomi Sotah 31 Chapter 6 Torah has one case and one case only of giving standing to a one witness testimony supporting the man making the complaint with the defendant hotly denies the charges 100%. Except for this case, defendants win denying charges 100% facing only evidence of one witness against them.

    The case in theGamara today: people tell the husband that his wife committed adultery. What’s the husband to do? He loves her. The wife hotly denies she committed adultery. Rule is 2 witnesses to establish a matter. One witness can open a case of the bitter waters, maybe, where the accused wife will drink the bitter waters, maybe, to prove her innocence. Much better for the husband to drop his complaint unless he has evidence of 2 witnesses.

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