Q&A: The Conversion of the Jewish People Not Necessarily the Haredi One
Originally published:
This is an English translation (via GPT-5.4). Read the original Hebrew version.
The Conversion of the Jewish People Not Necessarily the Haredi One
Question
https://www.inn.co.il/news/544735
What does the Rabbi think about Rabbi Melamed's article on non-Haredi conversion?
(As it is, in the Haredi world they make them immerse again for the sake of stringency, and there are hardly any converts; there are mainly stringencies.)
Answer
I said that I'm planning a column about this, and I'll address it there. In my opinion, Rabbi Melamed is not precise, but neither are his critics.
Discussion on Answer
An irrelevant claim. The important question is when and whether the conversion is valid, not when and whether to be lenient. That is a matter for each person's discretion.
Could the Rabbi perhaps address the claim that is incidentally brought at the end of the article?
They say: genealogical registries will be made…
(It costs a lot too, they will fight among themselves less over conversion and much more over mamzer status and divorce bills of divorce, and there have been stories and there will be stories; that's the way of the world. And each group will boycott the other. A huge number of genealogical registries will be created that over time will become a complete joke. It's not clear that the boycotting side won't itself turn into a marginal sect-group that disappears from Judaism, similar to the Essenes and the like. If so, who exactly is boycotting whom?) And it turns out that even as things stand, for many years they have not recognized conversions done through the Rabbinate and demand immersion again…
So the supposed threat is empty, completely empty, and mainly there is no moral basis for intervening, since they themselves do not recognize the conversions even now.