On Tuesday, the Rabbinical Council of America issued a statement taking issue with — blasting, actually — a decision by Israel’s Rabbinic Court of Appeals endangering hundreds (possibly even thousands) of conversions performed by the Israeli Conversion Authority, headed by Rabbi Chaim Druckman. (See page 34.)

Citing the teaching from Leviticus 19:33, "You shall not oppress the convert in your land," the RCA, saying that it was "appalled," called the decision, and the tone in which it was rendered, "entirely beyond the pale of acceptable halachic practice." The decision has been widely criticized in Israel as well.

It’s not surprising that Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar is scrambling to dissociate himself from the decision and to reassure members of the Israeli cabinet that the ruling will not stand. Not only does it have tremendous implications for the converts themselves, but — in the words of one Orthodox Israeli rabbi — it "embarrasses and shames a great Rabbi [Druckman], violates the Torah’s commands not to cause sorrow to converts, 
and deals a terrible blow to the efforts against intermarriage." In addition, those who oppose the decision have noted that it will likely lead to continued erosion of the status of rabbinical courts in the State of Israel as well as to a deepening rift in the rabbinic world.

The conversion flap began when the rabbinic high court overturned the conversion of a specific woman who apparently never lived a religious Jewish lifestyle. From there, they used the opportunity to call into question all the conversions performed in the last several years by Druckman, whom they perceive as too lenient, accepting potential converts’ avowed intention to observe Jewish law without subsequent enforcement.

This is a shanda. Rather than welcoming the convert, as we are commanded in Jewish tradition, it demeans converts as a class, incidentally implying that all those (Jews by birth and Jews by choice) who are not religiously observant are not worthy of being Jewish.

Small wonder the Israeli government is upset. With aliyah at a low level and Israel struggling to portray itself as a modern country, the ruling can only be considered counterproductive (not to mention mean-spirited). Absorption Minister Yaakov Edry also complained that the ruling deals a "death blow" to the entire system of conversion in Israel as well as to the motivation of Israeli non-Jews — mostly Russian immigrants — to begin the conversion process.

For the sake of the converts, the Jewish people, and the rabbinate itself, we hope that this ill-considered decision will itself be nullified.