The Torah never said

My story in this week’s Jewish Standard:

Israeli rabbinate disqualifies Orthodox converts

Breaks promise given to Rabbinical Council of America in 2007

It is the season for seeking atonement for broken promises.

Which turns out to be convenient timing for Israel’s chief rabbinate, which stands accused of breaking a promise to America’s leading body of Orthodox rabbis — as well as violating long-accepted Jewish law concerning the welcoming of converts.

At issue is the recent decision by the rabbinate, whose decisions determine whether someone can marry or be buried in Israel as a Jew, to require further investigation into the conversions of four people who converted in America under Orthodox auspices.

This despite the fact that these converts had had their conversions investigated and stamped kosher by two leading American Orthodox rabbis: Rabbi Gedalia Dov Schwartz of Chicago, who heads the court of the Rabbinical Council of America, and Rabbi Mordechai Willig, who teaches Talmud at Yeshiva University and is considered another one of the Rabbinical Council’s authorities in Jewish law.

In Teaneck, the Israeli government rabbinate’s refusal to trust America’s leading Orthodox rabbinic group was greeted harshly by Rabbi Shalom Baum, who leads Congregation Keter Torah — and more to the point, is serving a two-year stint as the Rabbinical Council’s president. Rabbi Baum put his name to a press release that “strongly” objected to the chief rabbinate’s action.

“We have already begun an investigation into this latest disgrace and we demand a thorough report of how this could happen,” Rabbi Baum said, in a press release issued by the RCA.

Read the rest….

Thinking about God and Donald Drumpf

Donald Trump God
Demeans women Subjugates women
Wants to deport foreigners Wants to exterminate natives
Huuuge His glory fills the whole world
Makes his chosen vendors suffer Makes His chosen people suffer
 Doesn’t pay taxes  Doesn’t pay taxes
Only begotten daughter is an Orthodox Jew Only begotten son is a Messianic Jew