The kosher rabbis

The Oberrabbinat in Israel has published two lists: the names of the rabbis whose conversions are acknowledged. On the other, the black ones, stand the names of the non-acknowledged. This division has massive implications for Israel's naturalization policy.

Many Orthodox converts from the Diaspora are not recognized by the Israeli Oberrabinat.

Rivka takes her prayer book, the so-called Siddur, out of the shelf, sits down at the table in her Tel Aviv apartment and tells her sad story. She is 34, comes from France and has been living in Israel for four years.

"I have had a strong connection with Judaism since I was a boy, I had Jewish girlfriends at school and I had the feeling that I was at home on the first visit to Israel."

Rivka came to Israel as a tourist and started a conversion course there with the Orthodox Israeli Rabbi Israel Rosen. Finally, she entered Judaism in his court. But Israel recognizes only the transgressions of the upper rabbinate, but no private conversions, even those of an orthodox rabbi like roses. The fact that Rosen founded and directed the conversion courts of the state rabbinate in 1995 and that his demands for a conversion are stricter than those of the rabbinate does not alter this. Rosen, for example, rejects conversions of individual rabbis abroad and accepts only the rabbinical courts, which are made by three members. He insists that the convert actually leads an Orthodox Jewish life, and not only, as so often, promises in the corresponding test.

Like Rivka, there are many converts who pass over to Israel at one of the two private orthodox conversion institutes. Some do not agree with the rejection by the Oberrabbinat. Three people who also came to Israel as Jewish and who became Jewish have complained against the non-recognition of the orthodox conversions. In March 2016, the civilian Supreme Court gave them right and forced the Ministry of Interior to naturalize them. But the Orthodox parties urged the government to transfer the responsibility for all transgressions to Judaism in Israel to the chief bishopric. Soon Parliament will also ratify the law amendment of June 2016. Rivka is very disappointed with the intervention of the politicians in their private life.

"I am not living in Israel for economic reasons, I come from a well-to-do family from Paris, work as an architect and have no problem living elsewhere, but I want to live in Israel."

Black list of rejected rabbis

Liberal Jewish conversions abroad are recognized by the State of Israel for naturalization, but not by the Israeli suprabbinate. In addition, this institution does not even accept all Orthodox converts from the Diaspora. If, for example, Rivka had converted to France in her home country, the Oberrabbinate might not have recognized the appropriate confirmation from her local bishop. For on Sunday the modern Orthodox rabbi Shaul Farber forced the Oberrabbinat to hand over a kind of "black list" of rabbis. This is followed by the names of the rabbis whose permits have been rejected. The native American Farber also heads the ITIM organization in Jerusalem, which represents the interests of Jewish Israelis against the orthodox state institutions - also in court. Shaul Farber.

"Every day, there are five or six people who have immigrated to Israel or are immigrating and wanting to get married here, but they do not know how to prove to the rabbinate that they are Jewish, and the best thing for immigrants is a letter from But the rabbinical authorities have refused to tell which rabbis they recognize and which do not. "

The only rabbi recognized by the Oberrabbinat in Germany, Avichai Apel

Farber's organization complained in 2014 and won. The Supreme Court forced the Rabbinate 2016 to publish for the first time a list of rabbis abroad, whose conversions it acknowledges. However, only 150 rabbis were listed worldwide, only two of them from Germany, both born in Jerusalem: Avichai Apel from Frankfurt and Yitzhak Ehrenberg from Berlin. Ehrenberg has been a pensioner since 2016.

Only one rabbi recognized in Germany

Is no other rabbi in Germany good enough for the Oberrabbinate? Rabbi Itamar Tubul, who does not speak English, decides. Three times a conversation with him for schedule reasons failed. It was only after my intervention with the head of the Rabbinate, Moshe Dagan, that his press officer answered my questions in writing.

The Rabbinate maintains that the list of recognized rabbis presented by the court was purely coincidental.

"The published list is based solely on the files that our department has worked on last year, and the rabbis, named by name, were those whose work had been devoted to the rabbinate, and that if a rabbi was not named by name, Does not recognize him. "

Since 2004, the Orthodox Rabbinical Conference of Germany or ORD has cooperated with the Oberrabbinat in Israel, especially with respect to conversions. Three to four times a year, two Orthodox Israeli rabbis travel to Germany, an Ashkenazic and a Sephardic. Together with a rabbi of the ORD, they form the central rabbinical court or "Beit Din", which annually checks about 50 Germans who want to become Jews. It is also responsible for religious divorces. The traveling expenses of religious Israelis are covered by the fees for conversions and divorces, each of which amounts to around 1,000 euros. Rabbi Shaul Farber's organization is regularly confronted with the consequences of this cooperation.

"The situation in Germany is very complex, because the Orthodox communities have largely given up their authority to carry out their own conversions, and have made a partnership with the Oberrabbinat, which has the advantage that their conversions are not questioned Germans who are in the process of conversion and are turning to us: Often, the Israeli rabbis do not know the candidates and do not appreciate their great commitment to the conversion process, so they are not in a position to determine whether they are ready to go Not even German. "

Ivanka Trump is kosher

However, there are currently no cases from Germany, but from the USA. A rabbinical court in Israel did not recognize the conversion of the 31-year-old American Nicole to the renowned Orthodox New York rabbi Haskel Lookstein.

The special point: Donald Trumps daughter Ivanka also converted to Lookstein. The prominent American, who is married to a Jew, is currently not planning to emigrate to Israel. But the decision against "their" rabbi triggered an unusual demonstration in Israel last July before the great rabbinical court in Jerusalem. One of the demonstrators was Natan Sharansky, the Israeli Immigration Agency chairman, Jewish Agency:

"It is my job to strengthen relations between the Jews in the world and Israel, by giving the Jews the feeling that Israel is their home," says Sharansky. "The court decision discredits Israel because it says:" Your rabbis, even the most profound and the greatest Zionists, we reject. "We do not recognize them, which is in the hands of our enemies."

Rabbi Farber also criticized the verdict. His association, ITIM, helped Nicole appeal against her rejection as a Jew. But it confirmed the decision of the rabbinical lower court. Nicole had to accept another conversion under harsh conditions and publicly reaffirmed her commitment to Judaism as well as to an orthodox lifestyle so that her planned wedding with Jewish Israeli Zohar could take place in Israel.

Should Ivanka Trump, who became Jewish with the same rabbi, have to convert again?

Because she is famous, the Oberrabbinat is a state institution, and the American daughter of the US president, both Israeli supreme burghers havetened to proclaim: Ivanka Trump is kosher.

The dedicated Jerusalem rabbi activist Farber is about to discuss the question of how a rabbi can be removed from the new "black list", so that his confirmation that a member of the community is Jewish is accepted. The Oberrabinat rejects the term "black lists". They had only rejected certain approvals from this rabbi, but not the rabbis themselves, according to an official statement. At the German Orthodox Rabbinical Conference ORD, one wishes to continue the good cooperation with the Oberrabbinat in Jerusalem.