A report Tuesday night said that in advance of the Knesset discussion on the conversion law, set for Wednesday, MK David Rotem, author of the bill that would bolster recognition of IDF conversions, will distribute a document outlining past halachic decisions of Rabbi Ovadia Yosef that affirm Rotem's law. Rotem, the report said, prepared the document together with Shas rebel MK Haim Amsalem, who is at bitter odds with his party's position against the bill.
The document includes a number of rulings by Rabbi Yosef during and after the period he was Chief Sephardic Rabbi. Among the decisions is an especially controversial one from 1970, when Rabbi Yosef was chief rabbi of Tel Aviv. Rabbi Yosef affirmed the controversial conversion of an American immigrant to Israel, Helen Seidman, who had originally converted as a Reform Jew. Rabbi Goren, then Chief Rabbi of the IDF, converted her in his Beit Din, and as the law required that a municipal rabbi affirm the conversion, Rabbi Yosef agreed to do so and arranged a Beit Din to affirm Seidman's conversion, despite opposition from Hareidi rabbis.
In response to the report, Shas said Tuesday night that it had nothing against IDF conversions, but that the High Court itself required Chief Rabbinate approval of IDF conversions.
The document includes a number of rulings by Rabbi Yosef during and after the period he was Chief Sephardic Rabbi. Among the decisions is an especially controversial one from 1970, when Rabbi Yosef was chief rabbi of Tel Aviv. Rabbi Yosef affirmed the controversial conversion of an American immigrant to Israel, Helen Seidman, who had originally converted as a Reform Jew. Rabbi Goren, then Chief Rabbi of the IDF, converted her in his Beit Din, and as the law required that a municipal rabbi affirm the conversion, Rabbi Yosef agreed to do so and arranged a Beit Din to affirm Seidman's conversion, despite opposition from Hareidi rabbis.
In response to the report, Shas said Tuesday night that it had nothing against IDF conversions, but that the High Court itself required Chief Rabbinate approval of IDF conversions.