Israel's Supreme Court Recognizes Private Conversions for Immigration, Sparking Rabbinical Concern

A member of the Rabbinate Council, Rabbi Eliezer Simcha Weiss, has called for an urgent meeting of the council following a Supreme Court decision that recognizes conversions performed by the private "Ahavat HaGer" rabbinical court for the purposes of the Law of Return. Rabbi Weiss expressed concern that civil recognition of conversion without corresponding religious recognition could create significant issues for marriage and family status.

In a letter sent on November 13th to Chief Rabbis Kalman Bar and David Yosef, Rabbi Weiss warned that the court's ruling does not guarantee the recognition of a convert's Jewish status by the Chief Rabbinate. He emphasized that legal recognition under the Law of Return is not equivalent to recognition according to Halakha (Jewish law), and that this discrepancy could lead to serious problems in marriage registration and determining the religious status of family members.

Rabbi Weiss called for official measures to differentiate between civil and religious recognition of conversion, develop guidelines for religious councils and marriage registrars, and establish a policy for other private rabbinical courts. He suggested that a population registry entry of Jewish origin should not be sufficient proof of Jewish status for marriage through the Rabbinate.

The Supreme Court's decision, made on November 12th by Justices Yitzhak Amit, Yael Willner, and Khaled Kabub, rejected an appeal by the Population and Immigration Registry Authority. The court affirmed the possibility of considering conversions performed by Rabbi Chaim Amsalem's private Orthodox court "Ahavat HaGer" for immigrant status purposes. However, the Supreme Court stressed that it does not rule on the religious validity of conversions or make Halakhic rulings.