“In effect, it creates a terrible rift between halachic Judaism in Israel and in the diaspora”

Author Date

…the Chief Rabbinate of Israel has essentially repudiated all of the converts who have been brought to Judaism by Modern Orthodox rabbis in the United States. That is a very heavy burden that the rabbinate in Israel has taken upon itself. In effect, it creates a terrible rift between halachic Judaism in Israel and in the diaspora. More importantly, it raises doubts in the minds of thousands of converts as to whether or not they are really Jewish.

Rabbi Haskel Lookstein, “A Travesty of Rabbinical Justice in Israel”, The Jewish Week (22 July 2016), 15.

Related posts:

  1. “Modern Orthodox Jews care about Israel because they have a strong sense of peoplehood, and they have a strong sense of peoplehood because they care about Israel”
  2. “…schism will lead to disaster and eventual oblivion for both sides” in Modern Orthodoxy
  3. “…if there wasn’t an Open Orthodoxy to kick around, YU and Modern Orthodoxy would once again be the focus”
  4. “A new infusion of an invigorated Modern Orthodoxy that meets the best intellectual, moral and spiritual standards of postmodern culture is a critical ingredient for the strengthening of the center of affiliated Jewry”