By: Jewish Press Staff Reporter
Wednesday, May 2, 2007

A press release issued last week by the Rabbinical Council of America, in advance of its annual convention which began Monday, asserted that the Israeli Chief Rabbinate had agreed to grant "automatic recognition in Israel of conversions performed by any one of the [RCA’s] participating Batei Din (rabbinical courts) which will be part of the soon-to-be-established network of Regional Batei Din for Geirus (Conversion)."

The formal announcement of the agreement, the release stated, would be made at the RCA convention.

The Jerusalem Post reported on Monday, however, that the Chief Rabbinate denied that any agreement had been reached with the RCA, though discussions were ongoing.

"We still have not agreed on the list of rabbinical courts in the U.S. that are authorized by the [Chief] Rabbinate to perform conversions," Rabbi Yitzchak Peretz, an aide to Sephardi Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar, told the Post in response to the RCA press release.

Rabbi Amar had been quoted by the RCA as saying, "I am most pleased by this agreement, one which I fully anticipate will be a model for Jewish communities all over the world."

But sources in the Chief Rabbinate told the Post that not only had no agreement been reached, but that "of about a dozen U.S. rabbinic conversion courts approved by the RCA, ‘several’ were still not recognized by the [Chief] Rabbinate."

In a telephone interview with the Post, Rabbi Basil Herring, executive vice president of the RCA, described differences between his organization and the Chief Rabbinate as "matters of detail," adding, "As far as everyone is concerned, the deal is completed."

The Post noted, however, that Herring "admitted that he might not have announced the agreement, which has yet to be committed to paper, if the RCA convention were ‘in three weeks time.’ "

On Tuesday, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency reported that the RCA had cancelled any convention announcement of an agreement because of a "misunderstanding."

According to the JTA, Rabbi Herring said the misunderstanding centered on who would appoint judges to preside over the regional rabbinical courts charged with considering candidates for conversion. He said he expected the matter to be cleared up soon.