MK Uri Orbach (Jewish Home) called for the dismissal of Chief Ashkenazi Rabbi Yona Metzger after the latter voiced public support for the opinion of the Head of the Supreme Rabbinical Court, Rabbi Avraham Sherman, in a painful controversy over conversion to Judaism (giyur, pl. giyurim).
“The honor of the converts supersedes that of the Chief Rabbi, who does not recognize the conversions of his own system” stated Orbach, who belongs to the national-religious stream. “If the Chief Rabbi believes his job is to obey and flatter his hareidi sponsors, it would be best to find him employment outside of the Chief Rabbinate of the State of Israel,” he said.
Addressing an audience at a public event earlier this week, Rabbi Metzger announced his unqualified support for Sherman, who ruled last year that all giyurim authorized by Rabbi Chaim Druckman are null and void. He said that all of Sherman’s decisions have the backing of the leading sage Rabbi Yosef Shalom Elyashiv and explained the importance of preventing false giyurim, in a way that left no doubt in the minds of the audience that he was referring to Sherman’s controversial decision.
In the major ruling last year, Sherman retroactively disqualified the conversions of thousands of people who passed through the government-appointed giyur mechanism headed by Rabbi Druckman. The decision has serious consequences, of course, for thousands of gerim (converts) and their families.
Minister Landver: Rabbi Amar Must Speak Out
Minister of Absorption (Israel Our Home) Sofa Landver called on Metzger’s Sephardic counterpart, Chief Sephardic Rabbi Shlomo Amar, to proclaim the conversions binding. Amar is also Chief Dayan (Religious Judge) of the Rabbinical Supreme Court.
“It is unacceptable that politicians and other seek to compromise the status of the conversions, seeking to harm their status and acceptability,” the minister stated. She called on Amar not to remain silent, because by doing so he shows passive approval for “those seeking to harm the gerim.”
The Tzohar Rabbis’ Organization also sharply rebuked Metzger. “It is both amazing and very sad to realize that the Chief Rabbi of Israel does not back the Chief Rabbinate’s own institutions,” the group of national-religious rabbis said. “Instead of giving his support to the rabbinical conversion judges who operate on the authority of the Chief Rabbinate, the Chief Rabbi has surrendered to a radical group of hareidi political functionaries who want to throw a spanner in the works of the giyur process.”
The Tzohar Rabbis added that “the Chief Rabbinate is entrusted with making rulings for the entire nation of Israel out of national responsibility. In terms of religious law and national considerations, the responsible thing to do in these times is to address the gerim’s distress, prevent mixed marriages and a division of the Jewish nation. The Chief Rabbinate of Israel must remain true to the path of its founders, like Rabbis Uziel and Unterman of saintly blessed memory, who did everything that Halakha [Jewish Law] permits and even requires in order to properly deal with the tremendous challenge now facing the People of Israel – our continued existence as one nation.”
Citing the recent shemittah-year controversy, the Tzohar Rabbis said that this is not the first time that the Chief Rabbinate is adopting extreme halakhic positions that are not suitable for dealing with the problem at hand.
Investigation Demanded
The Ne’emanei Torah Ve’Avoda Movement asked Justice Minister Yaakov Ne’eman and Attorney General Menachem Mazuz to launch an investigation in the matter of Rabbi Metzger’s pronouncement.
“Rabbi Metzger, who holds office by force of the law of the State of Israel, attacked with his words religious courts that were established by and operate by force of the State – an action which contravenes the Protocol of Service for government employees (Taksheer) and various legal provisions,” the movement stated. Ne’emanei Torah Ve’Avoda noted that Rabbi Metzger voiced an opinion on a matter which is currently pending in the High Court, and accused him of attempting to influence the results of that case, as well as “incitement against a large group of Rabbinical Judges.”
Rabbi Metzger’s spokesman denied that the Chief Rabbi had voiced an opinion regarding “Rabbi Druckman’s conversions.” He said that that “any interpretation of the Rabbi’s words beyond what was uttered by him serves only to increase strife and fans the flames of discord.”
Metzger’s endorsement of Sherman came after Sherman himself addressed the same conference and called upon municipal rabbis and marriage clerks to suspect and double-check all conversion certificates brought before them.