The Chairman of the Standing Committee, Rabbi of Galilee, London: Conversions are carried out solely by an important and regular court. We, who represent the spiritual leaders of eighty percent of the communities. The European Union decided to renew the mikvah department and for the first time in Europe; Establishment of Judaism and Eruvin Clarification Departments
GR Goldschmidt, who was unanimously re-elected to another term as president of the conference, said that “on the one hand we see a tremendous flourishing of communities and Torah and charitable institutions across Europe but on the other hand the rope is tightening around European Jewry, at home and abroad. The threats to the commandments of religion slaughter circumcision and circumcision, exist and require us to stand on our own two feet as our father Israel did in front of his brother Esau; Doron, prayer and war – they must understand that we will not accept any dictates on how to slaughter, confront or perform, when necessary, an act of migration. It is not a time of European niceness, but a waist-tightening and adherence to the most important values of Jewish existence in Europe with determination and wisdom.
“We were privileged to hear the words of the sages and on behalf of all the rabbis we thank the great revelers and rabbis of the generation of Israel Shlita for the tremendous letter of encouragement and special recitation sent from the United States by our loyal partner their home. “Israel will be old and fresh for days and years. I am excited to be with my dear brother, the rabbis of Europe, since the outbreak of the terrible plague, when we all have one goal in mind and learn to keep and ritual advice together on how to” do “the words of this Torah.”
Count Goldschmidt added that “the people of the conference worked on a full-fledged plan for the twelfth convention of the plenum of the ‘European Rabbinical Conference’, which was intended for these days here in Munich. But as everyone knows, the rabbis of the conference were the first to take the necessary precautions in their communities in the event of an outbreak of the plague, even before the directives were issued by the health authorities. To hold an event of this magnitude was impossible in view of the circumstances and guidelines of the Bavarian government and therefore we had to postpone the convention to the month of Adar II, hoping and praying for better days. However the issues facing European Jewry are important and acute at this time and in coordination with the Bavarian authorities and within the limits of the Corona for a limited number of rabbis we hold the convening of the Standing Committee. And who will soon give us hope “and the boats of disease among you.”
During the four sessions of the Standing Committee chaired by Rabbi Galilei, who was re-elected as chairman, two days of discussions took place on many issues, including: the campaign against legislation to ban or restrict slaughter and training in Poland, Belgium, Greece and the Netherlands. The proposed conversion reform in Israel and its implications for the Diaspora. Establishment of kollel avrechim in the communities. Malta Convention Initiative, report on the development of the European Court of Justice and plans for the future. The House Committee for Sages program, the Agunot Overseas Law, the establishment of the departments; Clarifications of Judaism, Eruvin and Mikvahs. The Court’s Court of Appeals in Amsterdam and Personnel Issues at the Conference. During the conference, General Goldschmidt met with the Prime Minister of Bavaria, Dr. Marcus Zeder. After discussing matters of religious freedom in Europe he thanked him for his support of the Jewish community in Bavaria and for the warm welcome and sponsorship given by his government to the convening of the rabbis.
The discussions began with the recitation of Psalms by the rabbinical director of the conference and Rosh Yeshivat Torat Chaim in Moscow, Rabbi Moshe Lebel, to the recovery of the European Governor, the great Gaon Rabbi Hanoch HaCohen Ben Blimla and the plague patients in Europe soon. The members of the Standing Committee welcomed the initiative of the chairman of the Berlin Beit Midrash for Rabbis, Rabbi Goldschmidt, with the blessing of the Arentroy family on the tenure of the Rosh Yeshiva of Hebron in Jerusalem, Rabbi Moshe Mordechai Farbstein as co-president of the Hagar. H. Arentroy Shlita.
At the opening of the conference, the special letters of the Minister of Torah, Rabbi Kanievsky Shlita and Rabbi Rosh Yeshiva Rabbi Edelstein Shlita were presented by the representative of the great men of Israel in the Standing Committee, Rabbi Israel Friedman. A voice at a level that calls for us not to break through the boundaries of halakhah, by bringing Gentiles into the vineyard of Beit Yisrael. In the center of their letter, Mernan and Rabbanan Shlita stressed: (See box)
In a discussion on the formulation of the conference’s position in light of the proposed conversion reform in Israel and its implications for the Diaspora in the face of the call of the great men of Israel Shlita – ‘Who is Eli’ – Gram Lebel surveyed It unfolds the chain of the agreement with the Rabbi of Israel with clear and uniform criteria regarding conversions in Israel and Europe, which were signed in Berlin with the blessing and encouragement of the great rejoicers and rabbis of Israel and the Jewish community.
“This agreement is just the breakthrough of ‘jump conversions’ to Europe of converting rabbis who do not know the mentality and engaged in wholesale conversion of foreigners who preferred not to go to court in their city as well as rabbis on the continent who became the ‘center for instant conversions’. Law, or court services, which will be recognized in Israel and around the world. They claim against us that we are not ‘open’ !? They will preach morality to us !? The ‘European Rabbinical Conference’, which represents the spiritual leaders of over eighty percent of the central and general communities in Europe numbering about one million four hundred thousand people, states that there is no requirement at all to recognize these conversions that have no halakhic validity. All the members of our hundreds of communities in Europe are only interested in conversion according to the law and tradition of Israel. ‘
Gram Gala’ili summed up the hearing and ruled on behalf of the participants; Conversion will take place in places where there is no infrastructure for Jewish community life. The misery of the High Court, which forces the Ministry of the Interior to register ‘converts’ in the conversion of the Jewish reforms, according to which; We will not accept any conversion that is not according to Halacha. ‘
Participants expressed the concerns of the Jewish community in Europe about the legislation against slaughter and circumcision in various countries that poses a real threat to the existence of Jewish life in Europe. In a discussion attended by Ms. Katrina von Schnurbain, coordinator on behalf of the European Union to Combat Anti-Semitism and to Promote Jewish Life, the rabbis surveyed; Rabbi Avraham Gigi, rabbi of Belgium and representative of the conference in EU institutions, Rabbi Mordechai Shodrich, rabbi of Poland and Rabbi Eliezer Wolf, abbot of Amsterdam, the current situation in their countries and the campaign they are waging against legislative initiatives. The director of the conference is the president of the conference, Mr. Gadi Gronich, in front of the governments and heads of the European Union in which they have enacted or in legislative proceedings against religious precepts.
In the discussion on the Agunot Law Abroad, GRP Goldschmidt extensively reviewed the issue of making the Agunot Law, which was passed in the Knesset as a temporary provision into a permanent law. It will be recalled that the important amendment made on his own initiative in the Rabbinical Courts Jurisdiction Law confers jurisdiction on rabbinical courts in cases of anchoring women from abroad. We have won and everyone knows the facts An hour to three years and passed on first reading. I hope that all those involved in the matter will be able to pass the amendment to a permanent law. ‘
On the second day of the conference, Gram Lebel raised one of the crucial and critical issues; the issue of Judaism clarification of the following at the gates of the communities. ‘ – Said Gramm Lebel – that the issue of clarification of Judaism arose and developed with the fall of the Iron Curtain and the departure of millions of former USSR Jews both to Israel and to communities around the world. Because the leadership of the conference decided to establish a division to clarify Judaism that will be handled at the highest level by a rabbinical court headed by the leading judges at the conference.
Lt. Gen. Lebel said that in light of the many inquiries from community rabbis, it was also decided to establish an Eruvin Department, which would provide a halakhic and professional response and help communities across Europe establish and maintain Eruvin in the purpose of compilation. ‘Throughout Europe the establishment of eruv is not found, and in most cities no eruv has been established. Despite the great need for this, there is currently no competent body capable of providing practical and especially practical halakhic assistance in administrative and legal proceedings before the authorities in this important matter. ‘ The department will be headed by Rabbi Yitzchak Mordechai Pepper, who specialized with Rabbi Moshe Berlin, one of the most prominent experts in the laws of Eruvin in the world.
The conference secretary, Rabbi Shmuel Aharon Baskin, informed the participants that in light of the many requests from community rabbis, the conference management decided to renew the activities of the “Purify Israel” information bureau in the Maran Baal “Ayelet Hashachar” project Olstein. ‘It is our duty to be vigilant and assist in the construction of a new mikveh, in the renovation of the existing one, and in the day-to-day maintenance’.
The center of the conference ‘Rabbinical Reserve Training of Europe’ program Rabbi Naftali Schiff extensively reviewed the conference’s activities in the program in which thirty-eight young rabbis from nineteen countries completed a comprehensive program for rabbis on halakhic issues and tackling all rabbinical roles and challenges. “The second cycle is currently opening and we intend to run a special program to train rabbinical women to deal with the challenges of the rabbi and the community.”
Photos: David Friedman
