Still no list of approved Diaspora rabbis, says rabbinate at Lookstein hearing

The name of Rabbi Haskel Lookstein, a prominent Modern Orthodox US spiritual leader, doesn’t appear on the Israeli Chief Rabbinate’s list of officially recognized Diaspora rabbis because there is no such list, said a rabbinate official at a Jerusalem Supreme Rabbinical Court hearing Thursday.

“There is no list today and we rely on a number of people and bodies” on a case-by-case basis in evaluating a rabbi’s acceptability, said Rabbi Itamar Tubul, the sole employee at the Chief Rabbinate’s registrar office tasked with annually approving some 2,500 immigrants’ petitions for recognition of their status as Jews.

“The rabbinical council will convene soon to catalog Diaspora rabbis and build a list,” said Tubul.

After two years of court petitions from Itim, a not-for-profit group that aids immigrants in navigating the religious authorities bureaucracy, in April Tubul’s office released a preliminary list with names of rabbis who were approved since September 2015, when the office was computerized. With 19 countries represented, the list includes some 150 Orthodox rabbis, the majority of whom belong to ultra-Orthodox rabbinical unions (60 percent) or the largest union of Orthodox rabbis, the Rabbinical Council of America.

The hearing was held following a high-profile demonstration last week condemning the Petah Tikva rabbinate’s rejection of Lookstein’s New York conversion of Nicole, who was born to a Jewish father and recently immigrated to Israel. Nicole, who converted a year ago in an Orthodox ceremony, is engaged to Petah Tikva native Zohar. The couple was told after beginning the bureaucratic process of registering for marriage that her converting rabbi was not acceptable, and therefore they cannot legally marry in Israel.

“I just want to get married, I want to start my life. They [the Petah Tikva rabbinate] are putting my whole life on hold,” Nicole, 31, told The Times of Israel last week.

Nicole is represented by lawyers from Itim. According to protocols from Thursday’s hearing, the three members of the Supreme Rabbinical Court were not familiar with Lookstein, 84, the spiritual head of Congregation Kehilath Jeshurun, which his family founded in 1872 as an Orthodox island during a period in which Manhattan Jewry was predominantly Reform.

‘In the United States, everything is wide open’

“The United States is huge and there are millions of Jews there,” said the court. In Israel, there is a Chief Rabbinate which can determine who may become a rabbis and who may not, the court noted. “In the United States, everything is wide open, and so the rabbinate is trying to make order” and regulate the vetting process of Diaspora rabbis.

Lookstein is a member of the RCA, and has served as the longtime principal of Ramaz, an Orthodox co-ed high school, which has seen generations of Jewish leaders in its ranks of graduates. Recently, Lookstein’s name has been associated with the conversion of Ivanka Trump, performed by him through the RCA’s standardized practices alongside two other respected Modern Orthodox rabbis.

At Thursday’s hearing, Tubul explained that the two Israeli chief rabbis have vouched for Lookstein. In reaching its decision to reject Lookstein, the Petah Tikva court erroneously asked a different rabbi, who in the past had been connected to the Diaspora but was no longer. Although that rabbi had in the past accepted Lookstein’s conversions, for an unreported reason the rabbi decided in this case that he was not recognized.

According to the Supreme Rabbinical Court, the Petah Tikva court “was sure that there was an official list, that’s what it understood.” Since Lookstein’s name didn’t appear on a list, in seeing the conflicting information, the court decided to reject Lookstein.

Tubul claimed that his office investigated Lookstein independently and found his conversions 100% acceptable. He further relayed the chief rabbis’ request that court hierarchy be maintained, such that Tubul’s acceptance of Lookstein’s conversion would supersede the Petah Tikva court’s rejection.

Jewish Agency head Natan Sharansky spoke at Thursday’s Jerusalem demonstration, and support for Lookstein has poured in from around the Diaspora, as he is beloved both as a spiritual leader and as a leading activist in the 1970s for the Prisoners of Zion, Jews trapped in the Soviet Union.

“What is happening now is the delegitimization of the State of Israel, not by our enemies, but by our own government,” Sharansky told The Times of Israel on Thursday.

According to Rabbi David Stav, head of the Israeli rabbinical organization Tzohar, the rejection of Lookstein is also against halacha (Jewish law), which forbids the oppression of a convert.

“The conversion that has been nullified by the court is that of a clearly well-intentioned ‘righteous convert’ and it is inconceivable that simply because of outright bureaucratic considerations a conversion is being nullified,” said Stav. Additionally, “this decision further deepens the already troubling divide between Israel and the Diaspora.”

As noted in the hearing’s protocols, the Supreme Rabbinical Court intends to announce its decision “soon.”