Rabbi Yisrael Rosen, founder of chief rabbinate conversion program, dies aged 76

Rabbi Yisrael Rosen, a pioneer in Jewish religious law and technology and the founder of the Chief Rabbinate’s office for conversion, died Thursday at the age of 76.

He is survived by his wife Shlomit, five children and many grandchildren.

Rosen was born in Tel Aviv in 1941. He studied in the Kerem Beyavneh yeshiva, and founded the kollel there for advanced learning. Afterwards, he studied electrical engineering at Machon Lev and Bar-Ilan University.

In 1976 he founded the Zomet Institute, which devises technological solutions to modern issues of Jewish law, particularly for the army and hospitals. He was also editor-in-chief of Zomet’s annual “Techumin” journal.

In 1995 Rosen was invited to set up and head the conversion department of the Israeli Chief Rabbinate.

Until August 2107 Rosen served as a member of the Jewish Home party’s policy board. He resigned over the appointment of a lesbian spokeswoman by party head Naftali Bennett.

Rosen served in the IDF as a combat soldier, fighting in both 1967’s Six Day War and 1973’s Yom Kippur War.

Hundreds of mourners attended his funeral in the settlement of Alon Shvut, where he lived.

The Zomet Institute said, “The halakhic efforts of Rabbi Rosen, and the particular closeness he had with the greatest rabbinic authorities of our generation, brought about dozens of halakhic solutions that helped the elderly and the disabled to live and observe Shabbat according to Jewish law. We offer our condolences to his family.”

Gush Etzion Regional Council head Shlomo Ne’eman said that Rosen was “one of the pillars of Gush Etzion” — a large and veteran settlement bloc to the south of Jerusalem.

Rosen, Ne’eman said, “dedicated his life to the connection between Torah and the state. In both he was a pioneer, and was enlisted in every national mission. Gush Etzion and Israel will miss the creativity, the sense of mission, and the love of the other in this special man.”