Connect with us

Hi, what are you looking for?

Jewish Business News

World News

RCA Validates ‘Peeping Tom Rabbi’ Conversions, But Israeli Rabbinate Still ‘Reviewing’

Rabbi Barry Freundel

The Chief Rabbinate of Israel is reviewing the validity of conversions performed by Orthodox Rabbi Barry Freundel, who has been charged with videotaping women in a mikvah near his synagogue, Haaretz reported.

“We are appalled by the accusations against Rabbi Barry Freundel and wish to stress that the acts attributed to him are atrocious and strictly against Jewish law, ” a spokesman for the Chief Rabbinate told Haaretz, adding:

Please help us out :
Will you offer us a hand? Every gift, regardless of size, fuels our future.
Your critical contribution enables us to maintain our independence from shareholders or wealthy owners, allowing us to keep up reporting without bias. It means we can continue to make Jewish Business News available to everyone.
You can support us for as little as $1 via PayPal at office@jewishbusinessnews.com.
Thank you.

“We offer our deepest sympathy to any victims. The Chief Rabbinate of Israel is drafting a policy regarding conversions performed by Rabbi Freundel that will attempt to strike a balance between what is permitted according to Jewish law, on the one hand, and the rights and welfare of the converts, on the other.”

Freundel headed the Washington D.C.-area rabbinical court conducting dozens of conversions. According to Haaretz, At least four women he converted have moved to Israel in the past year to marry Jewish husbands.

The Rabbinate’s hesitation may not be merely the result of their prudish attitude regarding infractions of a sexual nature, but rather specifically related to the matter of conversions. The dipping in the mikvah is one of the two key components of the conversion process for women: the female convert accepts the yoke of the sages and cleanses herself in the mikvah. There are, in fact, no other major requirements.

The fact that Rabbi Freundel, in a sense, defiled one of these two components, brings to question his judgment regarding the other component as well, namely, could he be an adequate representative of the sages, whose yoke the convert was accepting.

The Rabbinical Council of America (RCA), the central organization of Modern Orthodox congregations in the US, announced that all the conversions ever performed by Freundel were valid.

Its statement read:

“Today the RCA is able to announce that the Beth Din of America – under the leadership of Rabbi Gedalia Dov Schwartz – has concluded as a matter of Jewish law that conversions performed by Rabbi Freundel prior to his arrest on October 14, 2014 remain halakhically valid and prior converts remain Jewish in all respects. This ruling follows a review of the charges contained in the court documents that have been released to date (including the criminal complaint, search and arrest warrants, and accompanying affidavits) and applicable Jewish law with respect to the status of prior conversions.”

Unfortunately, should the Israeli Rabbinate decide to fault Freundel’s conversions, it could introduce untold suffering to countless individual converts and their families, whose entire sin was to be in the wrong place with the wrong rabbi.

Newsletter



Advertisement

You May Also Like

World News

In the 15th Nov 2015 edition of Israel’s good news, the highlights include:   ·         A new Israeli treatment brings hope to relapsed leukemia...

Entertainment

The Movie The Professional is what made Natalie Portman a Lolita.

Travel

After two decades without a rating system in Israel, at the end of 2012 an international tender for hotel rating was published.  Invited to place bids...

VC, Investments

You may not become a millionaire, but there is a lot to learn from George Soros.