בית הדין הרבני הגדול לערעורים
בית הדין הרבני הגדול לערעוריםצילום: נתי שוחט, פלאש 90

A precedent-setting ruling by the Rabbinic Supreme Court recognized the Judaism of two couples from Ethiopia who converted to Judaism under a false identity after presenting themselves as if they were brothers and sisters and the children of a single individual from the Beta Israel community.

After the scam became known, the conversion court decided to cancel their conversion, arguing that the converts were not entitled to aliyah under the Law of Return and were not entitled to come to the court in their true identity. Also since the threshold conditions of a conversion request include sincerity - a false identity fraudulently disqualifies the conversion. In addition, the couples introduced themselves as unmarried brothers and sisters and continued to live after the conversion without a halakhic marriage.

The four disqualified people petitioned the Rabbinic Supreme Court and asked to confirm their conversion. The judges, Rabbi Eliezer Igra, Rabbi Shlomo Shapira and Rabbi Zvi Ben Yaakov, sat on the bench and wrote a verdict with far-reaching implications.

The ruling deviates from the framework of the discussion regarding the specific case that is the subject of the appeal and it reviews the halakhic history on the subject of conversion and the issue of false identity starting from the Torah and the prophets, such as the Prophet Samuel, which relates that the Gibeonites who came to convert presented themselves with a false identity according to which they were not from the seven nations which were forbidden to convert to Judaism. The ruling also reviews the laws of the country from the Ottoman period to the present day on the subject of conversion, as well as the history of immigration from Ethiopia.

The decision also addresses the issue of conversion applications submitted for the purpose of obtaining citizenship or for the purpose of marriage. At the same time, it was stated that "we do not take lightly the findings. The appellants' serious fraud was and still is a reason for which criminal sanctions should be taken against them, perhaps severe, both in the context of the fraud against state authorities in general and in the conversion court deception in particular." The judges asked the tribunal to update the Israel Police and the State Attorney's Office on the matter "for the purpose of conducting an investigation and prosecuting the perpetrators."