Bill: Rabbinical courts will not rule on conversions

On aftermath of High Rabbinical Court's conversion annulment, NRP chair calls for stripping rabbinical courts of authority to rule on conversion matters. Rabbi Drukman calls court’s verdict ‘malicious fraud’

Kobi Nahshoni
Yedioth Aharonoth Published: 05.04.08, 14:36

The controversy over a recent High Rabbinical Court ruling annulling all conversions conducted by Head of the Israeli Conversion Court Rabbi Haim Drukman continues.
National Religious Party Chairman MK Zevulun Orlev announced Sunday he plans to propose a bill calling for stripping the rabbinical courts of all authority pertaining to conversions.

"The High Rabbinical Court's political, anti-Zionist ruling about conversions proves we have no choice but to form alternative conversion courts, presided by rabbis who served in the IDF and who pray for the state," he said.

Outraged by the court’s ruling, Drukman claimed that the ruling does not represent the High Court’s verdict, but the verdict of three judges who reached their decision against the instruction of the court’s Presiding Judge, Rabbi Shlomo Amar.

Drukman claims that Amar ordered not to publish the verdict but to submit the file directly to him.

“Two days later, they have already published the verdict,” Says Drukman, who calls the court judgment “a malicious fraud.”

The court ruling has elicited strong criticism from various groups in the political and religious arenas, as well as women’s rights organizations. The Tzohar Movement of “user-friendly" Zionist Orthodox rabbis called the government to recognize all conversions performed in all factions of Judaism.