The Eternal Jewish Family

There has been a proclamation issued by the Edah Hacharedis which its authors wish to disseminate and which has been made available to the public by Rabbi Daniel Eidensohn. It basically condemns a new organization that deals with Halachic conversions called The Eternal Jewish Family (EJF). The proclamation has already appeared on many blogs including Hirhurim (scroll down to Saturday night’s post to see it).

Most Orthodox Jews know by now that ‘Halachic conversions’ is one of the hottest topics being debated in the Torah world. That is because it is fraught with so many problems.

The concern most strongly driving the controversy is the massive number of Jews from the former Soviet Union who have immigrated to Israel. Many of them are intermarried. If the non Jewish spouse is a woman, their children are not considered in any way halachicly Jewish. That has resulted in tons of non Jews who think they are Jews living in Israel.

To a smaller extent this is true in the US too. Non Halachic conversions performed by Reform and Conservative rabbis leave non Jews believing they are Jews. And so too their children.

Additionally there have been many conversions done even by Orthodox rabbis that have come into question. The Rabbanut Beis Din in Jerusalem, now controlled by Charedi Rabbis has recently created quite a storm by no longer automatically accepting conversions done by rabbis belonging to the Rabbinical Council of America ( RCA).

The primary concern about some of the RCA conversions is a laxity on the key conversion requirement for the convert to sincerely promise they will observe Mitzvos. EJF was created in part to rectify this by standardizing all Orthodox conversions and requiring a no nonsense acceptance of doing Mitzvos. This was the brainchild of Rabbi Leib Tropper, of Yeshivas Kol Torah in Monsey, a Baal Teshuva Yeshiva.

Rabbi Tropper has managed to gain the participation of many rabbinic leaders of all types including leaders like Rav Elyashiv (by proxy of his representative Rabbi Nachum Eisenstein), Rabbi Dovid Feinstein and Rabbi Hershel Shachter, That is how important this issue is viewed and how accepted EJF has become as the vehicle to get this accomplished.

But... Rabbi Tropper also has as a goal of actively seeking out children of non Jewish mothers and placing them in religious Jewish schools with the hope that they will eventually convert. This is not a proper Halachic approach. Rabbi Moshe Sternbuch had written a Teshuva about it a while back. That Teshuva generated some controversy here because it seemed in opposition to a practice employed by NCSY under the authority of Agudah Dayan, Rabbi Shmuel Fuerst.

NCSY by its nature will very often have teens participate who are not Halachicly Jewish... but think that they are. Their mothers were converted non-Halachicly by rabbis of non Halachic streams of Judaism.

Rabbi Fuerst based on what he had clearly been told by his Rebbe Rav Moshe Feinstein, has Paskined that NCSY can actively encourage these children to continue participating in NCSY and to seek a proper conversion. Rav Moshe held that by not encouraging these youngsters to convert they would none the less continue believing they were Jewish and seek to marry other Jews That would actually increase inter-marriage in Klal Yisroel.

It is not clear whether Rabbi Sternbuch disagrees with this policy.

In any case, Rabbi Sternbuch has gotten the Edah HaCharedis rabbis on board with his Psak and has come out with a proclamation de-legitimizing EJF.

This is the germane paragraph:

Because of the dire consequences of intermarriage, there was a strong barrier that prevented many from intermarrying. However now that the consequence of exclusion from the Jewish people has been removed - this motivation not to intermarry has been lost. Consequently these intermarried couples and their children remain amongst the Jewish people. This results in their non-Jewish children being accepted into religious schools out of the hope that they will eventually convert.

It should be stated that in his original Psak, Rabbi Sternbuch does permit converting children of an intermarriage when they come to us of their own volition.

It seems from this proclamation which is basically a re-statement of Rabbi Sternbuch’s earlier Psak, that the reason for not allowing seeking converts from intermarried couples is that it is deterrent to intermarriage. The question remains about whether he would apply it to NCSY. Would he use the same rationale of deterrence to simply reject those NCSYers who are products of an intermarriage? Or would he consider them as coming of their own volition? That is unclear and the controversy remains.

There is another issue here. It is very surprising that Rav Sternbuch would urge rabbis not to participate in this event considering that a man he venerates, Rav Elyashiv is participating. Can it be that he sees Rabbi Eisenstein as an invalid representative of Rav Elyashiv? Or is he disagreeing with Rav Elyashiv on this matter? Or is Rav Elyashiv unaware of this component? If so, why is that? Do they not speak to each other?

In my view the controversy created by EJF is so great that de-legitimizing it is a good thing. The controversy was created by Rabbi Eisenstien. He wanted only ‘believers’ to qualify as a Dayan... a judge on the new conversion Beis Din. The conversion court system that would result after the process of conversion be standardized. It would require that rabbis not have heretical beliefs. Rabbi Eisenstein wanted to make clear that believers in an ancient universe disqualify them from serving on a conversion Beis Din.

Some people actually claim that Rabbi Eisenstein said they are actual heretics if they believe this. That isn’t clear. What is clear is that he is constantly doing things to alienate Jews he doesn’t agree with. And using an EJF platform where many rabbibnic leaders were in attendance gave him a broad pulpit to do so. And since he is Rav Elyashiv’s representative. It was a bully pulpit.

It is ironic that the Edah has condemned EJF. They probably agree with Rabbi Eisenstein’s views about the ‘hersey’ of an ancient universe. But whatever the reason, I’m glad they did it. If what comes out of such an organization can so contribute to the divide in Klal Yisroel it deserves to go into the ash bin of history.