Rabbis establish independent conversion courts

Several dozen prominent Orthodox rabbis, including former chief rabbi candidate David Stav, announce Monday the establishment of an independent conversion court system outside the framework of the Chief Rabbinate.

“We want to carry on a tradition of centuries, of rabbis who convert. And we won’t let politicians who took control of some jobs to be the gatekeepers of the Jewish tradition,” Stav tells Channel 2.

The announcement comes as six converts are formally converted in the new system on Monday. According to Stav, the converts are told the state rabbinate does not recognize them as Jewish.

The group, based loosely around the membership of the Tzohar organization, includes some of the most prominent leaders of Israeli nationalist-religious Orthodox Judaism, including Stav, Maaleh Adumim Yeshiva head Nahum Rabinovich, Har Etzion Hesder Yeshiva head Yaakov Medan, Efrat Chief Rabbi Shlomo Riskin and others.

“Dozens of rabbis who are great students of Torah and utterly committed to halacha [Jewish law], but who are not politicians, will do as they see right,” Stav says.

The move follows the cancellation last month of a 2014 reform that extended the power to convert to Judaism from a handful of Chief Rabbinate courts to dozens of local rabbis.