Israel’s chief Sephardic rabbi is in the United States to discuss conversion standards with a rabbinical group.
Shlomo Amar this week will oversee the Rabbinical Council of America’s appointment of religious court judges to its conversion courts.
Some of Israel’s local religious councils have refused to recognize RCA conversions, preventing the converts from marrying in Israel.
Amar has ordered that only special conversion courts in the United States be allowed to perform conversions and that he approve the courts’ members. Local rabbis have been handling conversions in their communities.
The new courts will toughen the conversion standards in America and depersonalize the process.
