Can a Judge Nullify Your Conversion?

Over the past few years, conversion became embroiled in a new controversy after a senior rabbinic court led by Rabbi Avraham Sherman nullified a conversion performed by a different court of the Israeli rabbinate, further calling into question thousands of conversions performed in the context of the Israeli army and other special conversion courses established by the state and overseen by Rabbi Haim Druckman. While various lawsuits, Supreme Court rulings and agreements with Sephardi Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar have partially neutralized that decision, it raised larger questions regarding conversion standards and the power to nullify another court’s conversion.

Unlike a country club whose board can revoke the rights of membership, no legislative body exists which can declare a convert non-Jewish at whim once he has properly undergone the conversion process. The current imbroglio stems from various definitions regarding what it means to “properly undergo a conversion” and the potential consequences of a conversion performed under non-ideal circumstances.