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Last update - 09:48 22/06/2008
Who leaked list of Jewish converts at heart of religious row?
By Shahar Ilan
Tags: Haim Druckman

Who leaked the list of names of some 150 people converted by Rabbi Haim Druckman to High Rabbinic Court Judge Avraham Sherman, after which Sherman ruled the conversions null and void because Druckman, the head of the conversion court, was out of the country at the time they took place? And who gave Sherman what Judge Tova Strassberg-Cohen, the ombudsman of complaints against judges, called the "mysterious file" against Druckman?

This mystery has been keeping the Knesset Constitution, Law and Justice Committee busy for the past few days, hearing and reading various versions from different rabbis, along with recriminations and defamations.

A reminder of the affair, which has caused a serious rupture between the Orthdox and ultra-Orthodox: At the end of March, a Rabbinical Court of Appeals headed by the staunchly conservative Rabbi Sherman upheld a ruling that an Ashdod woman, whom Druckman converted 15 years ago and sought a divorce, could not be considered Jewish since she had never practiced religious Judaism, effectively invalidating conversions by Druckman's conversion court. Following the ruling, Strassberg-Cohen recommended two weeks ago that Sherman be removed from his post.
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On May 26, the Chief Rabbi of Rehovot, Simcha Hacohen Kook told the Knesset Constitution, Law and Justice Committee: "We have a list that Israel Rosen sent the rabbinical court" of invalid conversions and marriages.

Rabbi Rosen, who was head of the Conversion Administration before Druckman, when Druckman was the head of the conversion court, discovered that in 2000, Druckman issued some 150 conversion certificates although he was out of the country when the conversions took place. Rosen brought the matter before the chief rabbis, who censured Druckman but upheld the conversions.

Rosen sent all the members of the Knesset committee an angry letter in which he denied sending a list of names to the rabbinic court, or presenting those on the list as invalid for marriage.

Druckman's deputy in the Conversion Administration, Rabbi Shmuel Klein said: "I assume that Rabbi Sherman is not the Holy Spirit and therefore someone had to bring this information to his door."

Klein wants Justice Minister Daniel Friedmann and the Knesset committee members to find out the identity of that individual: "Who prepared the file, who paid whom and where was this file all these years." Klein wants to find out what role Rosen and the administrator of the rabbinic courts, Rabbi Eli Ben-Dahan, had in the affair. He says he has "had it up to here with people stomping on Rabbi Druckman."

In response, Rosen said: "Rabbi Klein is framing me, as is his custom."

Ben-Dahan told Haaretz that the file on Druckman had been prepared on the orders of Sephardic Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar, following complaints he received. The file states that Druckman had converted foreign workers and illegal aliens in breach of Interior Ministry regulations. But how did the file reach Rabbi Sherman's High Rabbinic Court bench? According to Ben-Dahan, the bench asked for the file, and such a request "cannot avoid being carried out."

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      1.   These men have no right to decide 06:55  |  Ulf 22/06/08
      2.   Forgeries and fraud were known before 07:37  |  A thinking Jew 22/06/08
      3.   Strassberg and defending forgery, Perjury 07:40  |  Call a spade a spade 22/06/08
      4.   Time to stop fake conversion 07:43  |  Jewboy 22/06/08
      5.   How mysterious! the criminal kept records 08:50  |  Joe Jew 22/06/08
      6.   Crime according to Strassberg 08:51  |  Jerusalemite 22/06/08
      7.   Ulf these rabbinic judges have every right. 10:27  |  Get facts right 22/06/08
      8.   finally the Truth: there WAS a fraud 10:50  |  Joanna 22/06/08
      9.   witch-hunt or cover-up? 10:53  |  just a Jew 22/06/08
      10.   Nothing wrong with the "leak" 11:01  |  Binyamin Dissen 22/06/08
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      12.   #11 ULF: thanks to the Rabbis the Jewish nation survived Diaspora 14:40  |  AliciaYasmeen 22/06/08
      13.   ULF your hatred of anything Jewish leads you to incoherence 14:42  |  jennifer 22/06/08
      14.   #12 The Rabbis just keep their wages 21:51  |  Ulf 22/06/08
      15.   I`m not taking sides 22:08  |  Cyasher 22/06/08
      16.   ulf your rambling is only true IF 23:29  |  Jerusalemite 22/06/08
      17.   #14 and confusing rabbis with inquisition. 23:34  |  A thinking Jew 22/06/08
      18.   #15 Cyanide disguised is still poison 23:37  |  Joe Jew 22/06/08
      19.   #14 ULF: let´s talk about Spinoza 02:02  |  AliciaYasmeen 23/06/08
      20.   Just a small correction:#19 11:02  |  Get facts right 23/06/08
      21.   I`m not taking sides 12:26  |  Cyasher 23/06/08
      22.   #16 You are a fanatic of the Orthodox sect 12:54  |  Ulf 23/06/08
      23.   #17 Rabbis decided many things 13:07  |  Ulf 23/06/08
      24.   #20 To Facts-right 13:38  |  AliciaYasmeen 23/06/08
      25.   #20 To Facts-right: more on Spinoza - 1 13:58  |  AliciaYasmeen 23/06/08
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      27.   #20 TO Facts-right - 2 14:19  |  AliciaYasmeen 23/06/08
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      29.   Alicia do you know who condemned him? 14:25  |  A thinking Jew 23/06/08
      30.   #28 Personal diatrives and complaints... 14:53  |  Ulf 23/06/08
      31.   #29 Spinoza is one of the most influential philosophers 14:57  |  Ulf 23/06/08
      32.   #29 Thinking Jew, thanks for the references 15:39  |  AliciaYasmeen 23/06/08
      33.   Is ulf getting the message? 20:13  |  Joe Jew 23/06/08
      34.   Alicia Rember that then Dutch self definition was Calvinist 20:22  |  A thinking Jew 23/06/08
      35.   #33 Jo-jo doesn`t misunderstand 20:41  |  Ulf 23/06/08
      36.   Ulf`s interesting confessions 11:01  |  Joe Jew 24/06/08
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