Israel has no civil marriage or divorce, which means that every Jewish Israeli is at the mercy of the state’s rabbinic courts.
During the past decade, ultra-Orthodox rabbis have wrested control of those state rabbinic courts from their more moderate Religious Zionist and Modern Orthodox peers. Now securely in control, they have begun to use this new power to de-legitimize those who came before them. What weapon are they using to do this? Conversion to Judaism.
If a rabbi’s conversions are not recognized by the state, he is stripped of the authority needed to function and is essentially no longer a rabbi.
Last month, Israel’s ultra-Orthodox rabbinic judges voided hundreds, perhaps thousands of Religious Zionist conversions, creating a nightmare scenario where converts woke up one day—often years after their conversions—to find that they and their children had been ruled “goyyim.” The impact has not stopped at the Mediterranean. Converts in Europe, the Americas, and Australia now find their Jewishness under question. Even converts who have lived strictly Orthodox lives now must consider undergoing a second conversion procedure administered by ultra-Orthodox rabbis to clear up the “doubt”—“doubt” created by the ultra-Orthodox themselves.
Many other converts, now less religious then at their conversion, or whose lives are not up to ultra-Orthodox standards, have nowhere to turn.
What follows is a brief list of the most involved ultra-Orthodox rabbis behind this mayhem—a rogues gallery, if you will, of ultra-Orthodox malfeasance.
Name:
Rabbi Yosef Shalom Elyashiv
Age:
98
Last Seen:
Attacking Religious Zionist and Modern Orthodox rabbis
The leader (“Gadol Hador”) of non-hasidic ultra-Orthodox Jews (haredim). A life-long Jerusalemite, Elyashiv has waged a long, personal, and bitter war against Religious Zionism and the Chief Rabbinate.
In 2003, Elyashiv propelled Rabbi Yona Metzger to the position of Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi, in a backroom deal arguably worthy of the worst days of Chicago politics. Metzger’s ethical problems and his lack of advanced rabbinical training have considerably weakened the Chief Rabbinate, giving Elyashiv near-complete control of the state-funded Rabbinate’s infrastructure.
Elyashiv uses that control to attack the Religious Zionist and Modern Orthodox rabbis while simultaneously filling state-funded rabbinic positions with his cronies.
All the ultra-Orthodox rabbis behind the conversion crisis call Elyashiv their leader.
Name:
Rabbi Yona Metzger
Age:
55
Last Seen:
Dealing with allegations of sexual harassment and charges
of graft and ethics violations.
As the Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of Israel, it's not Metzger’s active presence in the conversion crisis that matters—it is his absence.
A Religious Zionist who has moved to the right, Metzger—who was put in office by Rabbi Elyashiv—lacks the advanced rabbinic qualifications necessary to serve as Chief Rabbi. He is not trained as a dayan (religious judge), and therefore cannot hold the position of President of Israel’s rabbinic court system—a key part of the job description of chief rabbi—or sit as a judge on a religious court.
While he was the sitting rabbi of North Tel Aviv in the 1990s, Metzger was credibly accused of extortion. In a judicial proceeding convened by the Chief Rabbinate to deal with those allegations, Metzger agreed not to run for Chief Rabbi of Tel Aviv as part of plea deal. At the time of his election as Chief Rabbi in 2003, Metzger was also under the cloud of several sexual harassment allegations made against him – allegations made by both by females and males.
When Metzger took office, I asked Rabbi Jonathan Rosenblum, Jerusalem Post columnist and haredi spokesperson, if Elyashiv knew about Metzger’s legal and ethical problems before backing him for Chief Rabbi. If Elyashiv did know, I asked, why did Elyashiv back Metzger anyway? Rosenblum checked with Elyashiv’s right hand, Rabbi Yosef Efrati. The answer he came back with was strikingly unabashed: Elyashiv knew about the extortion and the alleged sexual harassment before the election, but he backed Metzger anyway.
Why? “To restore the glory to the Chief Rabbinate,” Efrati told Rosenblum.
Metzger spent much of his first years in office dealing with those sexual harassment allegations, and with new charges of graft and ethics violations raised after he took illegal gifts from at least one business.
Metzger is now supposed to succeed Sefardic Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar as President of the High Rabbinic Court. (Amar held the position for the first half of the duo’s ten year term of office.) But because Metzger lacks the necessary qualifications, Amar continues to serve as High Rabbinic Court president while Metzger presses his case in Israel’s civil courts. Metzger’s plight has weakened the Chief Rabbinate while at the same time increasing the influence of Rabbi Elyashiv, whose cronies now dominate state rabbinic courts.
Name:
Rabbi Avraham Sherman
Age:
?
Last Seen:
Voiding the conversions of thousands of converts to Judaism
A former Israeli Army rabbi who once spent a sabbatical at Yeshiva University in New York, Sherman moved to the religious right and is now a follower of Rabbi Elyashiv
and a Judge on the High Rabbinic Court.
Sherman wrote the High Rabbinic Court decision voiding the conversions of thousands of people who converted to Judaism by under Rabbi Haim Druckman, a leading Religious Zionist rabbi. One of the legal maneuvers used to void said conversions was based on a technicality—Druckman had signed state documents stating conversions were done in his presence, and that the three judges, including Druckman, “sat together as one.” That was true for almost every conversion he performed—except for a handful performed for converts in Europe. Along with his duties as head of Israel’s Conversion Courts, Druckman served as a Member of Knesset, Israel’s parliament. Due to unexpected Knesset business, occasionally Druckman was unable to leave the country to oversee a planned conversion. To deal with problem and avoid disappointing these converts, Druckman relied on three European rabbis to perform the actual conversions, then signed the state document to allow the convert to be registered as a Jew in Israel. But the document still contained the same wording, and Druckman was not actually physically present when the conversions were performed. Druckman relied on a halakhic (Jewish legal) principle with Biblical precedent allowing a person to appoint an agent or agents to function on his behalf. (Think of Abraham sending Eliezer to find a wife for Isaac.) The Chief Rabbis at the time, Mordechai Eliyahu and Avraham Kahana-Shapira, ruled those conversions valid, but asked Druckman to stop using proxies. Druckman agreed.
Flash forward almost ten years: Rabbi Sherman reopened the these “forged” conversion documents and based some of his ruling voiding Druckman’s conversions on this issue.
Yet Sherman himself apparently did what Druckman did—except when Sherman did it, the mandatory three judges did not “sit together as one.” They couldn’t, because there were only two of them. Sherman, the third judge on that panel, was not in the court at the time actual testimony was heard in a divorce case. And Sherman did not appoint a proxy. Yet Sherman ruled on that case anyway, and signed a state document regarding it, to boot. Sherman also ruled that people with serious hearing and/or speech impairments cannot convert to Judaism and that any conversion performed for these people in the past are invalid. In Sherman’s eyes, conversion depends on acceptance of all the commandments. Since the “deaf” and “dumb” are considered exempt from observing commandments, they have no way to convert. Sherman believes that no matter how much a “deaf” or “dumb” person loves God and the Jewish people, he must forever remain an outsider. Any conversion performed for him will not change his spiritual status as a “goy.”
Reacting to Sherman’s treatment of Druckman and the belittling, obnoxious language Sherman used in his decision, Israel’s official ombudsman for judges and court procedures recently recommended Sherman’s dismissal.
Name:
Rabbi Nochum Eisenstein
Age:
?
Last Seen:
Pushing for a ban on Modern Orthodox and Religious Zionist conversions
Eisenstein is a close follower of Rabbi Elyashiv and a leading figure in the push to ban Modern Orthodox and Religious Zionist conversions.
The rabbi of the Ma’alot Dafna neighborhood of Jerusalem, he also heads the Vaad HaRabbonim Haolami LeInyonei Giyur, an international haredi organization whose goal is to make stricter conversion standards worldwide.
Eisenstein is a long-time enemy of Modern Orthodoxy and Religious Zionism, and is also an early backer of the Monsey, New York-based Eternal Jewish Family (EJF) and its founder, Rabbi Leib Tropper.
Speaking at an EJF convention late last year, Rabbi Eisenstein said anyone believing the universe to be older than 5768 years is a heretic who is unfit to serve on a beit din (religious court). This would make any conversions done by that rabbi or beit din invalid. Eisenstein’s source for this ruling? Rabbi Yosef Shalom Elyashiv.
Name:
Rabbi Leib Tropper
Age:
57 or 58
Last Seen:
Revoking his own conversions.
A follower of Elyashiv, Tropper heads EJF, which seeks to convert non-Jewish spouses of mixed marriages to ultra-Orthodox Judaism—while at the same time marginalizing Orthodox rabbis who don’t march to Rabbi Elyashiv’s tune.
Originally a North American organization, EJF is slated to have a couples seminar this November in Israel.
Tropper told potential converts already in the conversion process with Modern Orthodox rabbis that they should move their conversions to EJF to “ensure” acceptance by Israel’s state rabbinate.
Like Elyashiv’s Israeli acolytes, Tropper has also revoked at least one conversion.
Tropper (together with another haredi rabbi, Leib Pinter, who is now on trial for his alleged role in a $44 million mortgage fraud) is said to have spearheaded the 2004 ban against the Zoo Rabbi, Natan Slifkin, and his books.
Slifkin’s “crimes”? Following the lead of medieval rabbis and modern savants like Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan, Slifkin wrote that the scientific and medical opinions of ancient Jewish sages may have been in error. He also attempted to show that the opening chapters of Genesis can jibe with a universe far older than the 5768 years Orthodoxy commonly holds. Both positions are frequently held by Modern Orthodox rabbis, and were—before the ban—a mainstay of the ultra-Orthodox kiruv movement.
(The kiruv movement is, in effect, made up of ultra-Orthodox missionaries out to “convert” Jews to ultra-Orthodoxy. Its main players internationally are Aish HaTorah and Ohr Somayach. Chabad functions in a similar fashion, but has been opposed to anything but a literal understanding of Genesis from the get go.)
The ban against Slifkin was signed by dozens of ultra-Orthodox rabbis. Who was the lead signatory?
Thanks for this. I've long been disgusted with the Ultra-Orthodox monopoly on marriage and conversion in Israel, but hadn't been familiar with the specific people involved.
the picture you have up of nochum eisenstein is rabbi nochum eisenstein who is a posek in lakewood, and, while related (i believe), is not the nochum eisenstein of israel who is involved in the current conversion fiasco
You're such a ignorant moron, you don't even know that there are two Nachum Esienstein's -- one in Israel and one in Lakewood, and your picture is of teh one in Lakewood.
I mean when they came out publicly in support of Rav Sherman's findings. Rav Tropper just uses these occasions for self advertisement. What EJF thinks about anything in these matters is unimportant. They are not experts on these issues.
On the other side I am disappointed at people with the intellectual and halachic expertise keeping quiet or responding with rhetoric.
These sad, sad men. Don't they realize that at the end of the day, they are going to either create a backlash so violent that Humanist Rabbis can perform marriages in Israel, or a schism that will leave the tiny few who are good enough for the ever-increasing, ever more arbitrary "halakha" of the Haredi.
The revocations of these conversions is chilul HaShem. It is not the conversions that are void, but their annulment.
Re: comment #4: I wouldn't call someone who has never seen RNE but assumes that, upon finding a picture of someone named RNE, that it's the right RNE, ignorant.
However, I would call someone who does not know the basic rules for the usage of indefinite articles (a/an) or the difference between the noun (ignoramus) and adjective (ignorant) forms of a word ignorant indeed.
Many women are still coming before Rabbi
Eisenstein's Beit Din, in his home in Maalo Dafna, as did I with my 3
other Orthodox witnesses and 18 references. We were all shocked at the abuse that was
hurled at us by Rabbi Eisenstein and his "secretary", Rabbi Adelman.
The both of them were caught in lie after lie, to our amazement they
had no shame when we brought to their attention all the discrepancies
in in their statements. It was so unexpected to watch this rabbi shout
ruthlessly at 4 women for virtually nothing. He apparently had made
his decision, that I would not be allowed to go to the mikveh and that
he would not allow the giyur l'chumrah, as I was told in my previous
Beit Din appearance before him. He had insisted that I remain in the grips of Ohel
Sarah Imenu, a Charaedi conversion program which I had long out-grown and which
was black-mailing me by demanding $50. US dollars an hour to train me and is not even
State-approved! I was already in an Orthodox seminary and I am already
a Jew. I am a "marrano", a Levy. I only wanted the paperwork for marriage, (someday). The
four of us left the Beit Din in utter shock at what transpired and we
all called it a "disgrace in Israel". Instead of conversion, which he should not even require on the strength of my documents, they had me kicked out
of seminary for being a marrano!.... for being a Jew! Many other women have told
me similar stories. I was humiliated, lied to and drained financially
for I had gone to tremendous expense to bring back all documents from
my family's country at Rabbi Eisenstein's request ......"get the
documents and bring them back".
Rabbi Eisenstein objected to my going to classes elsewhere, including Aish Ha Torah, and She'arim College of Jewish Studies. He was so obviously annoyed with all my other schools and complained to Mrs. Sarah Vorst, (the director of Ohel Sarah Imenu), in front of me, saying "Why is she going to all these different schools"?
The answer is very simple. Ohel Sarah Imenu really only believes in a woman being a mother and a wife. Most of my classes there were spent listening to their criticizing every other Jewish school, their paranoia of being infiltrated by Christian missionaries, of which they even thought I may have been part of, and their mocking of Muslims. They finally decided that I was too advanced for their program and that I must take "privates" at the "private rate", which was much higher. These fussy old ladies wasted my time.
I was flatly told by the very teacher which Rabbi Eisenstein recommended to me that if I do not give the fee of $50. US dollars an hour, I will never make it through the Beit Din, (meaning Rabbi Eisenstein.). This should not be a condition of conversion.
They had no business retaliating against me by contacting She'arim and having me kicked out and She'arim had no business listening to them. I came to Jerusalem to earnestly study Judaism and they robbed me of that opportunity.
A member of my family became ba'al t'shuvah in recent years, and, since then, the rest of the family has been struggling with the ensuing demands on facilitating kashruth, strict shabbat observance, etc. The positive outcome has been that this change has been the impetus to make much more effort to gather among family--a gift in a family that has not been known for its closeness, ever. The negative outcome, however, is that one member's strict adherence to orthodoxy has caused others of us to question the validity of many of the traditional practices; rather than making observance more interesting and compelling, it has caused repulsion. This story, of the manipulation of the Israeli rabbinate by right-wing fundamentalists, reflects what many in my family find so difficult to accept--the mean-spiritedness of the Ultra-Orthodox and the enthusiasm for dividing the Jewish community, rather than attempting to bring all of us together in spirit. This, in fact, is what could lead to the demise of the Jewish world. It is not intermarriage or conversion that is the enemy; the real enemy is ourselves.
I understand your complaint, but it is a single incident of a person(s) that represent an area of Jewish Halacha. Now what are you plans?
Someone hurt you and seemingly makes it look impossible to accomplish what you want. There are more options out there and you can move on and still get what you are trying for. . .
The offspring of a Jew who marries a wife not of the Jewish race, but who is a woman of good heart, modesty and charity, must be preferred to the children of a Jewess by birth who is, however, destitute of the same qualities.
And before the peanut gallery start ranting that the book was referring to a non-Jewish woman that converted to Judaism, I have looked fairly carefully over relevant Geniza texts, and I can make a fairly good case that many Rabbanite Jewish communities were still using a patrilineal definition of Jewishness during the time period Sefer Hasidim was compiled.
The behavior of Haredi Rabbis seems to prove the claim of Sefer Hasidim.
Meanwhile under the careful watch of Lawrence Summers and his Russian American Jewish colleague Andrei Shleifer, Friedmanite free-market privatization of the Russian Federations state economy created yet more Jewish and Zionist wealth.
Naomi Klein thinks it was a mistake that Russian state corporations ended up in the hands of Russian oligarchs, all but one of whom was Jewish, but there is reason to suspect otherwise.
Not only was Lawrence Summers undergoing a transformation into super-Jew as a result of a midlife crisis, but a similar pattern of Jewish profiteering has also been discernable in the Egyptian Infitah (opening up to foreign investment).
Dr. A`laa el-Zayat used to teach occasionally as a visiting professor at the Harvard Medical School and apparently was a close friend of Egyptian Presidents Jamal Abdul-Nasir and Hosni Mubarak. Through the Egyptian Jewish community, to which the Zayat family covertly belonged as crypto-Jews, he may have had a connection to Harvard Professor Nadav Safran, who worked with both Israeli and American intelligence.[lxx] During the 80s Dr. el-Zayat and his son Ahmed had a close relationship with the Bostoner Rebbe, who appears to have arranged the marriage of Ahmed’s sister to a Lakewood Yeshiva bokher of Syrian Jewish background. (See Charedi Rabbis Rush To Disavow Anti-Gentile Book - Forward.com"[414] and Zayat's great colt doing more than schooling horses.[415])
Through the Rebbe the Zayat family developed a close relationship with the Newton Jews, who form an intellectual and financial center within Judonia. As the Egyptian economy opened up, Ahmed and his brother bought al-Ahram beverage, found funding within the American Jewish community, and eventually put together a $1.33 billion dollar sale to a Bronfman subsidiary.[416] In this way Bronfmans[417] have acquired a foothold in the Egyptian economy while keeping the money within the tribe.
The Zayats do not seem to be the only Egyptians with the strategy of linking up with Judonia for the sake of financial success or financial advancement. In Salata Baladi or Afrangi?[418] Columbia Professor Joseph Massad reviews the film Salata Baladi, which is a documentary about the director’s part Jewish Egyptian family and an Egypt that no longer exists. Massad writes:
As a friend of mine, an Egyptian woman academic who works on questions of cosmopolitanism in Egypt and who also saw the film in New York, remarked, there is very little nostalgia that the film or the director registers for a time when many Egyptians were communists, national liberationists, socialists, and everything in between (Hala Halim's forthcoming book addresses these exact issues). But this kind of diversity, it seems, the film and the director do not miss at all. Only the diversity of the non-Muslim and the foreign communities, including Greeks, Italians, Syrian Arab Christians, European Jews, and Arab Jews is missed by the contemporary cosmopolitans who live in Cairo and Alexandria. One wonders if the European funders of the film would have been interested in a film of nostalgia for Arab or Egyptian communism, of which both of Nadia's parents were part. But then the Ford Foundation, which contributed funds to the New York based ArteEast film festival (organized by Israeli scholar Livia Alexander) that screened Salata Baladi in New York might not have funded it either. When I saw the film in the middle of last November at Columbia University, where I teach, Nadia Kamel introduced it. She stood there and declared to her American audience (which included many Americans of Egyptian Jewish background and a number of officers from the Ford Foundation): "I come from a country full of taboos."
The audacity of that statement is not to be underestimated. In a post-9/11 New York city and a post- 9/11 Columbia University where taboos on free speech and academic freedom are part of everyday life, for Nadia Kamel to complain to her audience and enjoin them to sympathise with her plight against the taboos of her country borders on the obscene. This is not to say that Egypt does not have taboos, it is to say that playing native informant to a Western audience, most of whom, like Nadia Kamel, only recognise Egypt's taboos but not America's, is not a courageous act. Exploiting the sad and touching story of Naila Kamel to push an ideological agenda that the United States and Israel have been pushing for years against the will of most Egyptians is hardly a progressive or democratic enterprise either. This is most pronounced in the director's attempt to attack the anti- normalisation campaign with Israel, rather than Israel itself, as the party responsible for her mother's sadness and yearning for her cousin. Kamel's screening the film in East Jerusalem and Ramallah more recently, where it sparked much controversy, demonstrates that there are many kindred spirits to Nadia Kamel who live there and who look to benefit from normalisation under Occupation. What this documentary film is able to prove, however, is not that most Egyptians come from origins that are "salata baladi," as that is hardly unknown to Egyptians, but that the ideological positions the film wants to push is nothing short of salata afrangi, made up exclusively of Western neoliberal ingredients.
Massad’s description of the film opens the question whether Kamel is simply a more sophisticated version of Nonie Darwish[419] and has created a film of the sort that Jewish Zionists would want to watch so that Kamel could work her Jewish connection in order to attract funding from the Hollywood Crowd.
In regards to your question....Does Rabbi Eisenstein benefit financially from Ohel Sarah Imenu?...the answer is NO. To my knowledge he does not benefit. Ohel Sarah Imenu is a Charaedi conversion program whose founder, Rabbi Chaim Coffman, operates in New Jersey. Ohalei Avraham v' Sarah is an umbrella organization for Ohel Sarah Imenu for women and Ohel Avraham Avinu for men. Ohalei Avraham v' Sarah coordinates with ETERNAL JEWISH FAMILY (EJF), which I believe is the connection. Rabbi Eisenstein is in close contact with Ohel Sarah Imenu. Ohel Sarah Imenu has been problematic for years and yet it continues.
Another student of Ohel Sarah Imenu who was kicked out for pursuing a degree in Jewish Studies at the Hebrew University explained that Mrs. Vorst's son who lives in the US is a respected friend of Rabbi Chaim Coffman and obtained the job of "Director" of Ohel Sarah Imenu for his mother.
Mrs. Vorst contacted me in regards to a fee for going to the mikveh, which I assumed was for Ohel Sarah Imenu. I went to the mikveh in the Old City in 2006 on my own and the fee is normally minimal and considered a donation. I suppose the fee Mrs. Vorst was referring to was for witnesses of the conversion, which was in the plans but later halted by Rabbi Eisenstein. I learned to stir away from the subject of fees with Mrs. Vorst after she asked me for $3000. US dollarsas a "mitzvahfor me".
In response to the above "anonymous" comment ....."a single incident of a person(s) in an area of Jewish Halacha.....": No, Sir. I am one in a long, long list of women who have been jumping through the hoops for Ohel Sarah Imenu and Rabbi Eisenstein, only to be told after a year of study, "no, we will not convert you...go back to your own country". Mrs. Vorst receives converts referred by such organizations as Aish Ha Torah and Heritage House. We are women who do not speak Hebrew and are new in town. We know of no other program to turn to. Typically, a convert pays upwards from $700. US dollars to enter Sarah Ohel Imenu and often within 3 weeks the candidate is kicked out of the program. Of course, the monies are not returned. Part of the money goes for rent in the program's dingy little apartment in which they are forced to live in a dormitory setting with a non-Kosher kitchen. Preparation for Shabbat means working in Mrs. Vorst's house. When a student does not have the monthly tuition fees, she is instructed to take out "loans" from Ohel Sarah Imenu. I am fortunate that I avoided some of the "control measures" for Mrs. Vorst and her staff thought I may be an uncover missionary trying to infiltrate their program! Mrs. Vorst is herself, a convert from the Bible Belt, (Mississippi) and was a Christian. I was informed that she even returned to Christianity after conversion to Judaism and then returned back to Judaism. Her teacher, the one Rabbi Eisenstein referred me to, was an Evangelical Christian Missionary for about 30 years! These ladies are so paranoid of Christians, it is truly bizarre, as if the pendulum has swung to the other side. This paranoia was their reason to get rid of me in 2006 when I first came to the program. I attended classes elsewhere, Aish Ha Torah, Essentials, Pardes, etc and returned to Ohel Sarah Imenu in 2007. I have dealt with them for the whole time, even throughout my travels in Asia in order to gain their confidence...that I am sincere in my desire to live as an observant Jew...which I do.
I was in a state of shock when Rabbi Eisenstein closed my case. He did not keep his word. I lived to learn Torah and now I have no school due to their malicious retaliation. I realize I must pick up the pieces for this incident left me shattered. My point is that there are many others who were also shattered by these people. I know them personally. They damaged and left broken many candidates.
He refused to act on the information, even though, at the time, Vorst was still healthy (he latter had a stroke) and had hit on some of the girls. Eisenstein didn't seem to be bothered that a sex fiend was running a girls program. Not only that, Eisenstein employed Vorst as a translator, knowing full well that Vorst is a sicko.
By the way, Vorst's problems were a big scandal in the Charedi city of Emanuel, and that is why he was kicked out of town.
Having read in a Jerusalem Post magazine of a Russian woman convert who sought a getonly to be told that her conversion was no longer valid because she hadn't been living an orthodox life and that her children were no longer considered Jewish, I can only cringe at the prospects of further halachic rulings pertaining to conversion, divorce and observance being left to the powers that now preside. How difficult can life be made for some people. And, more importantly, how can the innocent suffer for the sins of their fathers.
The patriarchal system needs to be brought up to date by those educated and informed Jewish women who have a clear understanding of the female side of life. This will make a difference. How can the rabbonim ignore the women's role in Tanach? We would now be a very different people if Esau had had the blessing bestowed upon him instead of Jacob. Women need to make their mark now to prevent the further transgressions that will mar the lives of future generations.
Take it from one who waited 11 years for her civilly divorced ex- husband to bestow upon her a get, and who is now ridiculed for not remarrying and bearing more Jewish children. Tell me how I was halachically supposed to do these things when all was left in a vindictive Jewish man's hands. Conversion, divorce and all aspects of Jewish jurisprudence must be updated to give respect to all Jews; women, men, converts and children of converts. Could the ethics of our fathers have argued otherwise?
To this anonymous person, let me tell you something, Nancy is not the only case, there are many other people that had safer at that place, the thing is you guys never got to know because people leave that place just so scare to actually say or do something.
So don't speak so easily about this matter those people at that place are really, really crazy, and I can say, Nancy is telling the tru, and hers is not an aisolated case.
i must have this be anonymous... i too was in mrs vorst school ...i have been silent for a long time about the things that went on there while i was a student... and i am afraid that if i address them or speak of them publically that my conversion will be taken away.... i know this is a big possibility... especially now with the big conversion ballygan.
i too was lied to by the big rabbi(s).... there is so much i could say... but i am cautious because i am afraid of mrs vorsts (and her sidekick) power over my conversion. but the things nancy is saying are all true... and many many more stories could be told.
people should be made aware of the sickness of this system and the particular situation there so that more girls and women who come to Israel with sincerity and pure hearts are not caused so much suffering.
does anyone know if this person (zalman) has been prosecuted? also does anyone know if Mrs Vorsts has made an official statement concerning her schools association with this person? has she checked to see if any of her students were affected?? has she issued any apologies to her former students for dragging them into his arena against their wills?
while i was in her program we were forced to attend his foolish seminars and girls and women were "forced" to have counseling with him (forced because if you didn;t do what they wanted you to do, they would not let you get converted).
i personally know a young woman who he was extremely inappropriate with (she believes she was possibly even drugged...btw...she has taken several years to heal emotionally from the abuse she suffered at Ohel Sarah and other conversion "schools" in israel... and after they took thousands of her dollars, she never has been able to get a conversion...).
i had one "counseling" session with him and thought he was an idiot... i never could fathom why mrs vorst and mrs lawson were so enamoured with him. it didn't take a rocket scientist or a Torah scholar to see that the man was a joke... a sick joke...
i just came across this websight and all this information tonight. i had no idea that people were talking about this stuff openly. kol hakavod to you for blowing the whistle on this and bringing it out in the open where it needs to be. maybe it will give others the courage to come out and speak of the things that happened to them while in this school and in association with this beis din and these rabbis. it takes alot of courage to do so. may Hashem protect you and may you get the documentations that you seek.
If you or anyone you know has studied in Ohel Sarah Imeinu or has gone before Rav Eisenstein and been treated with disrespect...please contact me at nvst18@gmail.com.
I have spoken with several Rabbis who want to deal with this problem immediately, once and for all. But we need signed statements from victims, or we can do nothing.
Living in Jerusalem and having problems with my papers for the rabbanut myself, I have been following the entire Ohel Sarah Imenu story for a few days now. Even before the current stories came up I heard that this is very strict and brainwashing program.
May I just suggest to everyone out here to be *very* careful about contacting an anonymous person with the details of her story as suggested above? Ohel Sarah Imenu uses a gmail address itself, and it is no more that a gut feeling but nvost18@gmail.com could easily be something like nVORST with 18 for chai added. If there are really some rabbis out here who want to help--and there is a lot of motion in town currently b/o the guir crisis--a safer way of making contact should be found so that no more women get hurt in one way or the other. Better safe than sorry...
To that perceptive person who just added his/her 2 agorot....I
agree....I would not send any "signed statements" to that "anonymous"
E-mail address above, (or any other). Sarah Vorst is the moderator of
the Yahoo group "Orthodox Conversion" and she is computer savvy.
Don't do it! If you think you are safe with your conversion papers in hand, think again what could happen to your conversion if you brought trouble to the doors of either of these institutions. And there they would be with your sworn statement! Stay away from this idea. It sounds very fishy. Besides who wants to "bring them down" anyway? No one.. its vindictive..
Unsuspecting conversion candidates just need to have the opportunity to know what they are getting into in terms of the potential abuse and very real problems that exist within those systems.
If you truly are a legitimate hand of help to try to rectify this situation, you perhaps should try to think of another way to become a safe place for people to tell their stories and to give potential conversion candidates some informed options before choosing their conversion school and Beis Din.
I also discourage reporting abuse to private parties...Here is real help:
The organization that has come to the aid of converts, ITIM, a nonprofit headed by Rabbi Shaul Farber who helps converts navigate the bureaucracies of the religious establishment. Telephone: 972 2 648 2205. E-mail: shaul@itim.org.il.
Rabbi Farber is an activist and Torah Scholar who handles the most difficult conversion cases. So far, he is the only help I know of.
You should consider the Pardes Institute for Jewish Studies in Jerusalem and get in contact with a group called ITIM (Rabbi Seth Farber, http://eng.itim.org.il/) ITIM helps people clarify their status with the Rabbinut and Rabbi Farber has often done much of the legwork and investigating himself for candidates. He'll also be able to recommend good Jewish studies programs that won't extort you. He's a modern Orthodox rabbi, and he's helped a great many people (including me).
Pardes has excellent Jewish studies programs. I studied there for a while.
Best of luck to you in your endeavors, and I'm sorry that you had such a bad experience. I hope this helps
Rabbi Farber is an excellent Rabbi and lawyer. He helped me to get to the bottom of my 2 year 33aliyah "problems" that were the direct result of having converted thru a Hareidi Beis Din. He is a man who can be trusted and he is a real advocate for the gerim.
Referring to the kind comments above about Rabbi Farber and ITEM....Rabbi Farber has counseled me and on his advise I opened my case and all is underway. The work they do at ITEM is marvelous and I am grateful to them and you for putting out the word.
As far as Pardes, I went to the Summer Program last year. I joined their Ulpan, Aleph, and felt completely lost, for the other students were already speaking Hebrew and they were moving too fast for me to catch up. Pardes told me I could not be in their program without Hebrew. Also, not that it matters so much, but I am a little more bent towards Orthodox. I went back to Aish Essentials and finally on to Shearim College of Jewish Studies in Har Nof, an Orthodox seminary which I loved, the only one I could find with a Sephardic Heritage Program. Rabbi Adelman, who is secretary to Rabbi Eisenstein, with a huge sarcastic smile, told me and my 3 witnesses at their private Haraedi Beit Din that he had placed a call to the Director of Shearim saying that I am a Marrano and they will not allow my "Corrective Conversion". I received the call that morning from the office of Shearim with the news that because of this I will not be allowed back in school.
All of this is confusing and heart-breaking to me.
Mrs. Vorst adamantly dissuades all of her students at Ohel Sarah Imenu, NOT to go to Ulpan. However, she does not speak Hebrew herself, 40 years after her conversion. She teaches her own Hebrew course, which I could not understand. It happens to be the only course she personally teaches. (She hires teachers for other subjects....which is not much.) Women that leave Ohel Sarah Imenu have no Hebrew. Without Hebrew, life in Israel is rough. My next school will be an Ulpan!
I went to the Haifa University ulpan. It's private so it's a little money, but I got a scholarship. They're really quite good, with excellent teachers. I went from somewhere sort of mid-rama alef to mid-rama gimmel in a summer. While I still need to work on my reading comprehension a bit, I can understand news on the radio, many conversations, and can talk with people. There's a good mix of people in the ulpan program ranging from rabbinical students to Middle East scholars to your average "summer tourist" types, and a good range of ages (ie not just university students but a wide spectrum of adults as well).
Though if you're an olah, you can get ulpan through the Jewish Agency and the Mercazei Klita.
Glad to hear you'd already discovered ITIM and I hope that it will prove helpful.
I suggest you call my rabbi, Yaakov Shimon; he is not afraid of Sarah Vorst. But if you don't speak Hebrew you won't get very far with him, as he speaks no English. Good luck. You can email me for his cell phone or call the Yeshiva, Nachalat Tzvi, at 02-5836021.
He said would put out ads in the Religious newspapers. It is a Hillul Hashem to treat converts this way.
Thanks for leaving that information. Also, thank you for your activism in this matter. The very act of informing your rabbi is a great help! Ultimately every step that you take against injustices or very action taken to help the convert is recorded. Perhaps people don't always recognize your efforts, but HaShem never misses the things that you do and say. Sorry, if I gave you a bad time. I am only trying to protect others from potential harm. Please continue to encourage your rabbis to look into the matter. Your rabbis may also find that Rabbi Farber and ITEM have case upon case of converts reporting problems with Ohel Sarah Imenu and Rabbi Eisenstein. That should be plenty of evidence that would satisfy their need for documentation. I also hope that more girls and women come forward, however, most have had to leave Israel altogether because they could not obtain conversion and they have not left forwarding addresses. That presents a real problem for us, one that has protected Ohel Sarah Imenu for a long, long time.
ohel sarah imenu is a scam!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm gonna give you all a bit of advice. and I pray to Hashem that you all take serious heed to it. If you are a part of Mrs. Vorst's program, then leave and don't look back. If you have already left, then forget you were ever there. If you still have not converted, then find another way to do so. Mrs Vorst is very manipulative and extremely calculating. Cut your losses short and MOVE ON!!!!!!!!!!! The only person who can get hurt from "exposing" them or "bringing them down" is YOU....not them!. Let it go folks.....LET IT GO!!!!!!!!!
Nancy, I can relate to your story it sounds eerily similiar to mine.
I went to Israel at a young age trying to undergo gerut. I spent 2 years and thousands of dollars in a program that I won't name...I literally starved myself to pay the fees for the place and in the end they sent me away without completing my gerut, primarily it seemed, because I had run out of money. After this, I went to several places looking for help, eventually ending up at Ohel Sara Imeinu.
When I met Rabbi Zalman and Sara Vorst, they both promised and assured me that my troubles were about to end and that they would help me. Mrs. Vorst told me that no student had ever taken more than 6-10 months to complete her program and go to the mikvah. However, upon entering the student quarters I met a girl who was a crypto jew of spanish or moroccan descent who had been there for 2 years. She launched into an almost manic tirade about how terrible it was and how Mrs. Vorst was racist and told me "go away, far away from this place and never come back". I went to sleep that night feeling disturbed. I had already been messed around by one program, been used as a shabbos goy and various other slave-esque labour, had my financial resources entirely depleted, wasted several years (by that point I had been trying to become a bas Sara v'Avraham for just over 3 years), and been chewed up and spat out by the system. I was burnt out, and being particularly young at the time (I was a teenager when I began my journey), was having a lot of trouble taking care of myself. My health had deteriorated, I was suffering from malnutrition, and I didn't want to believe that I had just walked into another abusive conversion program.
So I stayed. Not for very long mind you. Within 3 weeks I was thrown onto the street in the middle of the night by Michaela, Sara Vorsts spy, recruited to sleep in the student quarters and spy on the students to make sure that they're not "secret christians". During the time I was there I was verbally and emotionally abused, taken advantage of, humiliated, castigated, denigrated and publically shamed. I was accused of having "too big of a klippah". When I left, friends remaining in the program were told that I was promiscuous (something to do with wearing my hair out?!!) and to stay away from me. Calls were made to other organisations telling them not to accept me as a student and generally trashing my reputation amongst english speaking programs, schools and even homeless shelters (some of these calls came from the previous program I had been in and I am not sure to what extent Mrs. Vorst was involved, though I do know that she had spoken with the director of the other program and had said bad things about said director to me, while saying bad things about me to the director from the other side of her face.)
As for Zalman... he was a known molestor of women prior to his employment at Ohel Sara Imeinu and it baffles me that A) he was allowed to keep his smicha after the first time he was busted and B) that he was then employed in a womens midresha of all places. I am not sure whether Mrs. Vorst knew that she was actively providing fodder for his perversion or whether she was willfully blind to it but I do know that she and Michaela the spy, aided and abetted him in victimising these girls and women. Last I heard, 8 of his victims were taking him to court. I do not know the result of it but I am certain that there are many more women who haven't come forward out of shame and fear.
As a result of all this I became homeless in Israel and wandered the streets sleeping in fields and such for many months before I was able to find employment and an apartment in Jerusalem. I continued to search for programs but in the end decided simply to continue learning Torah until people forgot my name and until I recovered from the shame and abuse that I suffered at the hands of these people who are taking advantage of the innocent, sincere neshamot who are searching for truth and to be accepted in Jewish society.
When I began this journey all those years ago, I gave up a lot in order to undertake it. I was all but disowned from my family, I left college halfway through a university degree, I invested my entire heart, soul, mind and being, and every tangible thing of value, every cent that I had, was hocked, pawned and sold to finance flights and exorbitant costs of conversion program fees. I reduced myself to a scrawny hobo in rags from trying and in the end, it got me nowhere. Nobody would help me because naturally, who are the rabbis and rebetzins going to believe? Some grubby little goy like me? Or their fellow jews who hold respectable positions in jewish society? I had no chance of being believed, or of finding help, so in the end I had some kind of a nervous breakdown. I went through a long period of identity crisis, where essentially I felt that I was a jew, I knew that I was a jew, but yet somehow I wasn't one. I had learnt and studied myself to bones and it didn't help me. It didn't matter whether I knew the halachot or whether I followed them. It only mattered if I had the money. And I didn't understand. And I still don't understand. I don't understand how they can shatter the lives of people who gave up everything for Israel, for its people, its torah, its God and its land.
To this day, I continue to love klal yisrael with all my heart and soul. I am in galus in chutzlah eretz now, but I miss Israel every single day. I continue to study parshah, keep kosher and shabbos, davan and stay in contact with my "real family", the friends and spiritual companions I met throughout my travels in Israel. I continue to support jewish causes. I continue to love each and every jew, even the people who showed me no mercy, though I still resent to a certain degree that they failed me so terribly. I watch the news and see what is happening in the land and I cry. Am I a jew? I don't know. The ultra orthodox say not. They say that I'm not good enough for them or for the jewish people. I sit here in exile, rejected by my own society and treated like a "religious nut" because of the extreme lack of religiosity of any kind in my area (people are militarily anti-religious here). At the same time I am also rejected by the very people whom I have striven to emulate and become a part of. I am like a mule - half horse, half donkey, the mule is kicked at by the horses and bitten by the donkeys and chased off into the wilderness by both of them.
To Nancy, I wish you the best of luck continuing your conversion. Don't give up. And the same to everyone else under similiar circumstances. To anyone at Mrs. Vorsts program I strongly advise you to leave and seek help elsewhere. I also issue a strong warning not to use her home computer as it is tapped. Her computer records keystrokes and she WILL go into your personal email etc. and read your private mail and may gather information about who you know in case she needs it to blackmail or threaten you with in the future. Go to an internet cafe on rechov yaffa or ben yehuda instead.
As for me, I intend to keep trying, and hope that Hashem guides me to the right people and helps me to make the right decisions in order to succeed. I am not as young and naive and gullible, nor as weak and helpless, as I was back then, so perhaps this time I will be okay.B'ezrat Hashem.
I
have been silently reading these comments for quite some time now. I’ve
decided to have my voice heard. I’ve started my own blog about this
whole thing.
Some of the disturbing things that happen in the Ohel Sarah program are the following:
-They want you to live in the student housing, and they will go thru your personal belongings and look for anything they might use to "prove" that you are a secret christian. They feel it is their duty in protecting Judaism, to riffle thru your possessions when you are out and read your diaries, your letters, etc... Mrs Vorst and Mrs Lawson are excessively paranoid and suspicious about people being secret christians....
- I have seen Mrs Vorst publically ridicule, abuse and humiliate certain of her students (not all, as she seems to know who she can get away with it with). It was extremely painful to watch and not feel that I could speak out against this behavior at the time without jeopardizing my own standing (I am ashamed to say that I was trying to save my own skin).
- Mrs Vorst told her students once to "shun" a certain former student and not to have anything to do with this girl (or else WE would be subject to suspicion)... the girl had done nothing wrong or inappropriate except disagree with Mrs Vorst. She had a whole class on how this girl was a bad influence on us. It was shocking and unbelievable to me that I was sitting in a class with this going on.
- Mrs Vorst tried to get us to sever our ties with anyone who was not on her approval list (even in my case, with my Orthodox Rabbi and wife who were my dearest friends and emotional support and spiritual mentors). She even wanted us to sever relationships with people who were friends with people who were not on her approved list.
- Also, without proof but with strong certainty, she offers the girls to use her computer (after saying we couldn't frequent places like internet cafes or use the public library computer), presumably so she then get "into" our emails and read our emails and see what websights we were getting mail from. She would not see anything wrong with this.
- There is much more I could write, but suffice it say, women should be warned before they commit their time and money to this conversion school ... they need to know the potential challenges they will face there.
- also let it be known that inspite of what the Rabbis on the Beis Din "promise" and "assure you" about your ability be able to make aliyah with a Hareidi conversion, it ended up being a HUGE obstacle and nightmare for my aliyah approval. So if you are wanting to make aliyah you need to get a conversion through the Rabbinut.
Why did I stay in this program which I was obviously so unhappy with and illsuited for? Because when you come to Israel you are facing so much stress, lack of money, working against a time factor (if you want to make aliyah.... the 18 month thing), you don't know where to go, who to believe, what is the best course of action... plus just being in a foreign country, on your own alone is nearly overwhelming. Once I realized what I had gotten into, I simply could not bear to try to find another school and start the process all over again... I knew I just needed to lay low and stick it out, not make waves.
I would like to spare other women the suffering and stress that I endured there and that I saw and heard of many many other girls did also.
How is it possible for me to have an opinion, without knowing clearly the other side?
The truth is, i'm not even sure if I know this side??
Why are the Jews so strick with conversion?
You want to be Christian just except the man nailed to the boards and your good to go no? The sprinkle a little water on you or whatever in some "orthodox" sects...
but that's all no?
Why are these jews so strick? what's the big deal, just let whoever wants in in...
although I am curious why anyone would want to join them. Let's look backwards, you have the holocoust, for some reasonthe the crazy Nazi's tried to wipe them out,
during the 1500,1600's there was mass murders or them, in the 1100's the arabs pushed them out of spain or whatever with murder, the christains before that tried to wipe them out, before that was the romains, the greeks, who the heck would want to join them? They are cursed anyways no? what good could come out of them, they are all going to be gone soon anyways no?
i mean really, who would WANT to be a Jew? the fact that in spite of everything you listed in the way of holocausts, expulsions, being hunted, hounded and murdered from one end of the earth to the other, that someone actually wants to be a jew!?
these indiviudals sell all their possessions, give up home, family, careers, medical benefits, reputation, support systems, break the hearts of their families, travel to a hostile, dangerous foreign country only to be forced to jump through unbelievably hoops, overcome huge obstacles and stumbling blocks that are put in front of them by the religious jews ... they do this all because something inside them is telling them that they are suppose to align themselves with the people of israel... the God of Israel.... and then the people that are suppose to be helping them doubt their sincerity! ... and try to make it even harder for them??!!
but you have one huge misconception... the jews aren't going away anywhere any time.soon or basically EVER!
Hashem is regathering His exiles from the four corners of the earth... and they are returning ... and nothing is going to stop this flood... in spite of the fact that many of the religious jews are making it so horribly difficult for them... i think some people may have alot to answer for in the despicable way they are treating the ger...
now wait a second. let's analize your words, and see if what I got was right :
No one should want to be a Jew. Yet , despite all we listed, you have individuals who do want to be Jewish. Why do they want to be Jewish? Becuase they realized, that the Jewish people, as you said your self
"the jews aren't going away anywhere any time.soon or basically EVER! "
So, when certain "individuals" who for whatever reason, come across the Jews or come across the idea that the Jews will, again as you said, exist forever (whatever forever means) should not the people who are Jewish test them? and make sure they are becoming Jewish for the right reasons, as you said, to people apart of the nation of G-d, and to keep the Torah, and the mitzvot (commandments, 613 of them, all of them, not less even one, which means everything)
Is that really to much to ask for? Sincerety. and ensuring they are doing it for the right reasons, and not the "wonderful benefits"...
not to mention, it aint easy being Jewish....becuase man they have alot of rules to follow.....and these converts have to keep them, even more so then secular turned religous jews!
Again, is it to much to ask for sincerety? I hear where they are coming from, ok, so maybe they are alittle extreme, but in today's world, everything is extreme....
"....should not the people who are Jewish test them? and make sure they are
becoming Jewish for the right reasons, as you said, to people apart of
the nation of G-d, and to keep the Torah, and the mitzvot
(commandments, 613 of them, all of them, not less even one, which means
everything)
Is that really to much to ask for? Sincerety."
Dear Reply to the Reply,
If the Jews could only keep one mitzvot...."The positive and active commandment to love your fellow Jew as yourself".....but the Ultra-Orthodox cannot even keep that one simple commandment. Without it, all their praying and mitzvot is irrelevant.
Conversion programs are made up of people, not idols. You cannot control a convert's every thought or motive. Perhaps if you trust in Hashem, that He will do His job and you do yours then we won't be out straining ourselves trying to "catch insincerity" because as a mere human, you never know if you are bias or misreading what you see in another person. Who are any of us to say who is worthy? It's just mind control!
what does keeping one mitzva have to do with anything? very confused by your first paragraph. explain.
I'm also not sure what trust in Hashem has to do with this? From my understanding, the Jews were giving rules. and every major rule, had it's detials. Within the rules, there was conversion. so what follows, is within conversion, there are rules.
Like Ruth, let's go learn how she "struggled" to convert. There are other examples in the scriptures of their rules for converstions...it's very confusing to see what bothers you and people like you so much? Why should they just open their doors, with arms wide open, and presents and smiles for people who might be coming to join "us' for the wrong reasons? Why can't the Jews be selective of who they allow into their relgion. Who are we to put rules on them, and say what's fair and what's not fair for them to determine what are the proper tactics for allowing one to enter their holy relgion? and if they choose to make people jump through burning hoops, then so be it. If you don't like it, don't join. It's no different then applying for medical school, or law school. They have critera for getting in...it's no different over here...let their leaders determine what's the critera... you want to argue about the critera? You have to be learnned, that's just ovbious, you don't know the issues inside out, of the top of your head, with clarity, your ovbiously not educated enough to join the conversation
Surviving Passover in the City of Pastry
His granddad was a nazi officer, but Hendrik said he loved Jews....
A timeline of rabbinic boorishness and media mayhem
Tragedy thrice-removed
I Didn’t Know How Jewish I Was Until My Mother Died
Cori Chascione
Thanks for this. I've long been disgusted with the Ultra-Orthodox monopoly on marriage and conversion in Israel, but hadn't been familiar with the specific people involved.
Cori C
http://cori-c.blogspot.com
coriac@gmail.com
Anonymous
the picture you have up of nochum eisenstein is rabbi nochum eisenstein who is a posek in lakewood, and, while related (i believe), is not the nochum eisenstein of israel who is involved in the current conversion fiasco
HowieF
Noticed photo of Rabbi Avraham Sherman on the site:
Religion and State in Israel
Anonymous
You're such a ignorant moron, you don't even know that there are two Nachum Esienstein's -- one in Israel and one in Lakewood, and your picture is of teh one in Lakewood.
Nigritude Ultramarine
98 years old and still doesn't know what a credit card is. The Earth is 5,768 years old? Please, every school kid knows that it's 4,400 years old.
Conveniently, his age matches his IQ.
Null
Bartley Kulp
I mean when they came out publicly in support of Rav Sherman's findings. Rav Tropper just uses these occasions for self advertisement. What EJF thinks about anything in these matters is unimportant. They are not experts on these issues.
On the other side I am disappointed at people with the intellectual and halachic expertise keeping quiet or responding with rhetoric.
Anonymous
...as they said in the '60s.
These sad, sad men. Don't they realize that at the end of the day, they are going to either create a backlash so violent that Humanist Rabbis can perform marriages in Israel, or a schism that will leave the tiny few who are good enough for the ever-increasing, ever more arbitrary "halakha" of the Haredi.
The revocations of these conversions is chilul HaShem. It is not the conversions that are void, but their annulment.
adderabbi
Thanks for the link, Shmarya.
Re: comment #4: I wouldn't call someone who has never seen RNE but assumes that, upon finding a picture of someone named RNE, that it's the right RNE, ignorant.
However, I would call someone who does not know the basic rules for the usage of indefinite articles (a/an) or the difference between the noun (ignoramus) and adjective (ignorant) forms of a word ignorant indeed.
Nancy Cuevas Guzman
Many women are still coming before Rabbi
Eisenstein's Beit Din, in his home in Maalo Dafna, as did I with my 3
other Orthodox witnesses and 18 references. We were all shocked at the abuse that was
hurled at us by Rabbi Eisenstein and his "secretary", Rabbi Adelman.
The both of them were caught in lie after lie, to our amazement they
had no shame when we brought to their attention all the discrepancies
in in their statements. It was so unexpected to watch this rabbi shout
ruthlessly at 4 women for virtually nothing. He apparently had made
his decision, that I would not be allowed to go to the mikveh and that
he would not allow the giyur l'chumrah, as I was told in my previous
Beit Din appearance before him. He had insisted that I remain in the grips of Ohel
Sarah Imenu, a Charaedi conversion program which I had long out-grown and which
was black-mailing me by demanding $50. US dollars an hour to train me and is not even
State-approved! I was already in an Orthodox seminary and I am already
a Jew. I am a "marrano", a Levy. I only wanted the paperwork for marriage, (someday). The
four of us left the Beit Din in utter shock at what transpired and we
all called it a "disgrace in Israel". Instead of conversion, which he should not even require on the strength of my documents, they had me kicked out
of seminary for being a marrano!.... for being a Jew! Many other women have told
me similar stories. I was humiliated, lied to and drained financially
for I had gone to tremendous expense to bring back all documents from
my family's country at Rabbi Eisenstein's request ......"get the
documents and bring them back".
David Kelsey
Nancy Cuevas Guzman,
Is R Eisenstein connected to Ohel Sarah Imenu? And do they work with Neve Yerushalayim?
Nancy Cuevas Guzman
Rabbi Eisenstein objected to my going to classes elsewhere, including Aish Ha Torah, and She'arim College of Jewish Studies. He was so obviously annoyed with all my other schools and complained to Mrs. Sarah Vorst, (the director of Ohel Sarah Imenu), in front of me, saying "Why is she going to all these different schools"?
The answer is very simple. Ohel Sarah Imenu really only believes in a woman being a mother and a wife. Most of my classes there were spent listening to their criticizing every other Jewish school, their paranoia of being infiltrated by Christian missionaries, of which they even thought I may have been part of, and their mocking of Muslims. They finally decided that I was too advanced for their program and that I must take "privates" at the "private rate", which was much higher. These fussy old ladies wasted my time.
I was flatly told by the very teacher which Rabbi Eisenstein recommended to me that if I do not give the fee of $50. US dollars an hour, I will never make it through the Beit Din, (meaning Rabbi Eisenstein.). This should not be a condition of conversion.
They had no business retaliating against me by contacting She'arim and having me kicked out and She'arim had no business listening to them. I came to Jerusalem to earnestly study Judaism and they robbed me of that opportunity.
Anonymous
A member of my family became ba'al t'shuvah in recent years, and, since then, the rest of the family has been struggling with the ensuing demands on facilitating kashruth, strict shabbat observance, etc. The positive outcome has been that this change has been the impetus to make much more effort to gather among family--a gift in a family that has not been known for its closeness, ever. The negative outcome, however, is that one member's strict adherence to orthodoxy has caused others of us to question the validity of many of the traditional practices; rather than making observance more interesting and compelling, it has caused repulsion. This story, of the manipulation of the Israeli rabbinate by right-wing fundamentalists, reflects what many in my family find so difficult to accept--the mean-spiritedness of the Ultra-Orthodox and the enthusiasm for dividing the Jewish community, rather than attempting to bring all of us together in spirit. This, in fact, is what could lead to the demise of the Jewish world. It is not intermarriage or conversion that is the enemy; the real enemy is ourselves.
David Kelsey
Is Rabbi Eisentein the owner of the rabbi or an adviser to this program? Does he benefit monetarily in any way?
Anonymous
So Nancy, what are you planning to do?
I understand your complaint, but it is a single incident of a person(s) that represent an area of Jewish Halacha. Now what are you plans?
Someone hurt you and seemingly makes it look impossible to accomplish what you want. There are more options out there and you can move on and still get what you are trying for. . .
ThorsProvoni
Sefer Hasidim on Intermarriage
The offspring of a Jew who marries a wife not of the Jewish race, but who is a woman of good heart, modesty and charity, must be preferred to the children of a Jewess by birth who is, however, destitute of the same qualities.
And before the peanut gallery start ranting that the book was referring to a non-Jewish woman that converted to Judaism, I have looked fairly carefully over relevant Geniza texts, and I can make a fairly good case that many Rabbanite Jewish communities were still using a patrilineal definition of Jewishness during the time period Sefer Hasidim was compiled.
The behavior of Haredi Rabbis seems to prove the claim of Sefer Hasidim.
ThorsProvoni
They also do not accept any converts -- at least according to Zev Chafets’s description in the NY Times.
SY's seem to relax their rules for the hyperwealthy.
From The Israel Lobby and American Society: The Russian Oligarchs
Meanwhile under the careful watch of Lawrence Summers and his Russian American Jewish colleague Andrei Shleifer, Friedmanite free-market privatization of the Russian Federations state economy created yet more Jewish and Zionist wealth.
[See Zionist Control: Sovereign Wealth Funds?,[411] Fighting Hegemonic Blocking on Campus -- Ousting Summers at Harvard,[412] and Poisoning the atmosphere at Harvard.[413]]
Naomi Klein thinks it was a mistake that Russian state corporations ended up in the hands of Russian oligarchs, all but one of whom was Jewish, but there is reason to suspect otherwise.
Not only was Lawrence Summers undergoing a transformation into super-Jew as a result of a midlife crisis, but a similar pattern of Jewish profiteering has also been discernable in the Egyptian Infitah (opening up to foreign investment).
Dr. A`laa el-Zayat used to teach occasionally as a visiting professor at the Harvard Medical School and apparently was a close friend of Egyptian Presidents Jamal Abdul-Nasir and Hosni Mubarak. Through the Egyptian Jewish community, to which the Zayat family covertly belonged as crypto-Jews, he may have had a connection to Harvard Professor Nadav Safran, who worked with both Israeli and American intelligence.[lxx] During the 80s Dr. el-Zayat and his son Ahmed had a close relationship with the Bostoner Rebbe, who appears to have arranged the marriage of Ahmed’s sister to a Lakewood Yeshiva bokher of Syrian Jewish background. (See Charedi Rabbis Rush To Disavow Anti-Gentile Book - Forward.com"[414] and Zayat's great colt doing more than schooling horses.[415])
Through the Rebbe the Zayat family developed a close relationship with the Newton Jews, who form an intellectual and financial center within Judonia. As the Egyptian economy opened up, Ahmed and his brother bought al-Ahram beverage, found funding within the American Jewish community, and eventually put together a $1.33 billion dollar sale to a Bronfman subsidiary.[416] In this way Bronfmans[417] have acquired a foothold in the Egyptian economy while keeping the money within the tribe.
The Zayats do not seem to be the only Egyptians with the strategy of linking up with Judonia for the sake of financial success or financial advancement. In Salata Baladi or Afrangi?[418] Columbia Professor Joseph Massad reviews the film Salata Baladi, which is a documentary about the director’s part Jewish Egyptian family and an Egypt that no longer exists. Massad writes:
As a friend of mine, an Egyptian woman academic who works on questions of cosmopolitanism in Egypt and who also saw the film in New York, remarked, there is very little nostalgia that the film or the director registers for a time when many Egyptians were communists, national liberationists, socialists, and everything in between (Hala Halim's forthcoming book addresses these exact issues). But this kind of diversity, it seems, the film and the director do not miss at all. Only the diversity of the non-Muslim and the foreign communities, including Greeks, Italians, Syrian Arab Christians, European Jews, and Arab Jews is missed by the contemporary cosmopolitans who live in Cairo and Alexandria. One wonders if the European funders of the film would have been interested in a film of nostalgia for Arab or Egyptian communism, of which both of Nadia's parents were part. But then the Ford Foundation, which contributed funds to the New York based ArteEast film festival (organized by Israeli scholar Livia Alexander) that screened Salata Baladi in New York might not have funded it either. When I saw the film in the middle of last November at Columbia University, where I teach, Nadia Kamel introduced it. She stood there and declared to her American audience (which included many Americans of Egyptian Jewish background and a number of officers from the Ford Foundation): "I come from a country full of taboos."
The audacity of that statement is not to be underestimated. In a post-9/11 New York city and a post- 9/11 Columbia University where taboos on free speech and academic freedom are part of everyday life, for Nadia Kamel to complain to her audience and enjoin them to sympathise with her plight against the taboos of her country borders on the obscene. This is not to say that Egypt does not have taboos, it is to say that playing native informant to a Western audience, most of whom, like Nadia Kamel, only recognise Egypt's taboos but not America's, is not a courageous act. Exploiting the sad and touching story of Naila Kamel to push an ideological agenda that the United States and Israel have been pushing for years against the will of most Egyptians is hardly a progressive or democratic enterprise either. This is most pronounced in the director's attempt to attack the anti- normalisation campaign with Israel, rather than Israel itself, as the party responsible for her mother's sadness and yearning for her cousin. Kamel's screening the film in East Jerusalem and Ramallah more recently, where it sparked much controversy, demonstrates that there are many kindred spirits to Nadia Kamel who live there and who look to benefit from normalisation under Occupation. What this documentary film is able to prove, however, is not that most Egyptians come from origins that are "salata baladi," as that is hardly unknown to Egyptians, but that the ideological positions the film wants to push is nothing short of salata afrangi, made up exclusively of Western neoliberal ingredients.
Massad’s description of the film opens the question whether Kamel is simply a more sophisticated version of Nonie Darwish[419] and has created a film of the sort that Jewish Zionists would want to watch so that Kamel could work her Jewish connection in order to attract funding from the Hollywood Crowd.
Nancy Cuevas Guzman
In regards to your question....Does Rabbi Eisenstein benefit financially from Ohel Sarah Imenu?...the answer is NO. To my knowledge he does not benefit. Ohel Sarah Imenu is a Charaedi conversion program whose founder, Rabbi Chaim Coffman, operates in New Jersey. Ohalei Avraham v' Sarah is an umbrella organization for Ohel Sarah Imenu for women and Ohel Avraham Avinu for men. Ohalei Avraham v' Sarah coordinates with ETERNAL JEWISH FAMILY (EJF), which I believe is the connection. Rabbi Eisenstein is in close contact with Ohel Sarah Imenu. Ohel Sarah Imenu has been problematic for years and yet it continues.
Another student of Ohel Sarah Imenu who was kicked out for pursuing a degree in Jewish Studies at the Hebrew University explained that Mrs. Vorst's son who lives in the US is a respected friend of Rabbi Chaim Coffman and obtained the job of "Director" of Ohel Sarah Imenu for his mother.
Mrs. Vorst contacted me in regards to a fee for going to the mikveh, which I assumed was for Ohel Sarah Imenu. I went to the mikveh in the Old City in 2006 on my own and the fee is normally minimal and considered a donation. I suppose the fee Mrs. Vorst was referring to was for witnesses of the conversion, which was in the plans but later halted by Rabbi Eisenstein. I learned to stir away from the subject of fees with Mrs. Vorst after she asked me for $3000. US dollars as a "mitzvah for me".
In response to the above "anonymous" comment ....."a single incident of a person(s) in an area of Jewish Halacha.....": No, Sir. I am one in a long, long list of women who have been jumping through the hoops for Ohel Sarah Imenu and Rabbi Eisenstein, only to be told after a year of study, "no, we will not convert you...go back to your own country". Mrs. Vorst receives converts referred by such organizations as Aish Ha Torah and Heritage House. We are women who do not speak Hebrew and are new in town. We know of no other program to turn to. Typically, a convert pays upwards from $700. US dollars to enter Sarah Ohel Imenu and often within 3 weeks the candidate is kicked out of the program. Of course, the monies are not returned. Part of the money goes for rent in the program's dingy little apartment in which they are forced to live in a dormitory setting with a non-Kosher kitchen. Preparation for Shabbat means working in Mrs. Vorst's house. When a student does not have the monthly tuition fees, she is instructed to take out "loans" from Ohel Sarah Imenu. I am fortunate that I avoided some of the "control measures" for Mrs. Vorst and her staff thought I may be an uncover missionary trying to infiltrate their program! Mrs. Vorst is herself, a convert from the Bible Belt, (Mississippi) and was a Christian. I was informed that she even returned to Christianity after conversion to Judaism and then returned back to Judaism. Her teacher, the one Rabbi Eisenstein referred me to, was an Evangelical Christian Missionary for about 30 years! These ladies are so paranoid of Christians, it is truly bizarre, as if the pendulum has swung to the other side. This paranoia was their reason to get rid of me in 2006 when I first came to the program. I attended classes elsewhere, Aish Ha Torah, Essentials, Pardes, etc and returned to Ohel Sarah Imenu in 2007. I have dealt with them for the whole time, even throughout my travels in Asia in order to gain their confidence...that I am sincere in my desire to live as an observant Jew...which I do.
I was in a state of shock when Rabbi Eisenstein closed my case. He did not keep his word. I lived to learn Torah and now I have no school due to their malicious retaliation. I realize I must pick up the pieces for this incident left me shattered. My point is that there are many others who were also shattered by these people. I know them personally. They damaged and left broken many candidates.
Simcha
Mrs. Vorst's husband, Moshe Yosef Vorst, is a sexual pervert.
He was kicked out of a number of charedi communities due to his activities.
Stay away!
Shalom
Was Eistenstein aware of Mr. Vorst's problems? If so, did he act upon it?
Simcha
Eisenstein was aware of the fact.
He refused to act on the information, even though, at the time, Vorst was still healthy (he latter had a stroke) and had hit on some of the girls. Eisenstein didn't seem to be bothered that a sex fiend was running a girls program. Not only that, Eisenstein employed Vorst as a translator, knowing full well that Vorst is a sicko.
By the way, Vorst's problems were a big scandal in the Charedi city of Emanuel, and that is why he was kicked out of town.
hannah247
Having read in a Jerusalem Post magazine of a Russian woman convert who sought a get only to be told that her conversion was no longer valid because she hadn't been living an orthodox life and that her children were no longer considered Jewish, I can only cringe at the prospects of further halachic rulings pertaining to conversion, divorce and observance being left to the powers that now preside. How difficult can life be made for some people. And, more importantly, how can the innocent suffer for the sins of their fathers.
The patriarchal system needs to be brought up to date by those educated and informed Jewish women who have a clear understanding of the female side of life. This will make a difference. How can the rabbonim ignore the women's role in Tanach? We would now be a very different people if Esau had had the blessing bestowed upon him instead of Jacob. Women need to make their mark now to prevent the further transgressions that will mar the lives of future generations.
Take it from one who waited 11 years for her civilly divorced ex- husband to bestow upon her a get, and who is now ridiculed for not remarrying and bearing more Jewish children. Tell me how I was halachically supposed to do these things when all was left in a vindictive Jewish man's hands. Conversion, divorce and all aspects of Jewish jurisprudence must be updated to give respect to all Jews; women, men, converts and children of converts. Could the ethics of our fathers have argued otherwise?
Anonymous
To this anonymous person, let me tell you something, Nancy is not the only case, there are many other people that had safer at that place, the thing is you guys never got to know because people leave that place just so scare to actually say or do something.
So don't speak so easily about this matter those people at that place are really, really crazy, and I can say, Nancy is telling the tru, and hers is not an aisolated case.
Anonymous
i must have this be anonymous... i too was in mrs vorst school ...i have been silent for a long time about the things that went on there while i was a student... and i am afraid that if i address them or speak of them publically that my conversion will be taken away.... i know this is a big possibility... especially now with the big conversion ballygan.
i too was lied to by the big rabbi(s).... there is so much i could say... but i am cautious because i am afraid of mrs vorsts (and her sidekick) power over my conversion. but the things nancy is saying are all true... and many many more stories could be told.
people should be made aware of the sickness of this system and the particular situation there so that more girls and women who come to Israel with sincerity and pure hearts are not caused so much suffering.
i am sorry i have been silent for so long...
Anonymous
does anyone know if this person (zalman) has been prosecuted? also does anyone know if Mrs Vorsts has made an official statement concerning her schools association with this person? has she checked to see if any of her students were affected?? has she issued any apologies to her former students for dragging them into his arena against their wills?
while i was in her program we were forced to attend his foolish seminars and girls and women were "forced" to have counseling with him (forced because if you didn;t do what they wanted you to do, they would not let you get converted).
i personally know a young woman who he was extremely inappropriate with (she believes she was possibly even drugged...btw...she has taken several years to heal emotionally from the abuse she suffered at Ohel Sarah and other conversion "schools" in israel... and after they took thousands of her dollars, she never has been able to get a conversion...).
i had one "counseling" session with him and thought he was an idiot... i never could fathom why mrs vorst and mrs lawson were so enamoured with him. it didn't take a rocket scientist or a Torah scholar to see that the man was a joke... a sick joke...
Anonymous
i just came across this websight and all this information tonight. i had no idea that people were talking about this stuff openly. kol hakavod to you for blowing the whistle on this and bringing it out in the open where it needs to be. maybe it will give others the courage to come out and speak of the things that happened to them while in this school and in association with this beis din and these rabbis. it takes alot of courage to do so. may Hashem protect you and may you get the documentations that you seek.
NVST18@gmail.com
If you or anyone you know has studied in Ohel Sarah Imeinu or has gone before Rav Eisenstein and been treated with disrespect...please contact me at nvst18@gmail.com.
I have spoken with several Rabbis who want to deal with this problem immediately, once and for all. But we need signed statements from victims, or we can do nothing.
Anonymous
Living in Jerusalem and having problems with my papers for the rabbanut myself, I have been following the entire Ohel Sarah Imenu story for a few days now. Even before the current stories came up I heard that this is very strict and brainwashing program.
May I just suggest to everyone out here to be *very* careful about contacting an anonymous person with the details of her story as suggested above? Ohel Sarah Imenu uses a gmail address itself, and it is no more that a gut feeling but nvost18@gmail.com could easily be something like nVORST with 18 for chai added. If there are really some rabbis out here who want to help--and there is a lot of motion in town currently b/o the guir crisis--a safer way of making contact should be found so that no more women get hurt in one way or the other. Better safe than sorry...
Just my 2 agorot.
Nancy Cuevas Guzman
To that perceptive person who just added his/her 2 agorot....I
agree....I would not send any "signed statements" to that "anonymous"
E-mail address above, (or any other). Sarah Vorst is the moderator of
the Yahoo group "Orthodox Conversion" and she is computer savvy.
Good looking-out!
hamsa
the e-mail, as well as the post, are legitimate. women and girls, speak up now and help to put a stop to this so that no one else gets hurt!
Anonymous
Don't do it! If you think you are safe with your conversion papers in hand, think again what could happen to your conversion if you brought trouble to the doors of either of these institutions. And there they would be with your sworn statement! Stay away from this idea. It sounds very fishy. Besides who wants to "bring them down" anyway? No one.. its vindictive..
Unsuspecting conversion candidates just need to have the opportunity to know what they are getting into in terms of the potential abuse and very real problems that exist within those systems.
Anonymous
If you truly are a legitimate hand of help to try to rectify this situation, you perhaps should try to think of another way to become a safe place for people to tell their stories and to give potential conversion candidates some informed options before choosing their conversion school and Beis Din.
Nancy Cuevas Guzman
I also discourage reporting abuse to private parties...Here is real help:
The organization that has come to the aid of converts, ITIM, a nonprofit headed by Rabbi Shaul Farber who helps converts navigate the bureaucracies of the religious establishment. Telephone: 972 2 648 2205. E-mail: shaul@itim.org.il.
Rabbi Farber is an activist and Torah Scholar who handles the most difficult conversion cases. So far, he is the only help I know of.
Anonymous
Hello Nancy
You should consider the Pardes Institute for Jewish Studies in Jerusalem and get in contact with a group called ITIM (Rabbi Seth Farber, http://eng.itim.org.il/) ITIM helps people clarify their status with the Rabbinut and Rabbi Farber has often done much of the legwork and investigating himself for candidates. He'll also be able to recommend good Jewish studies programs that won't extort you. He's a modern Orthodox rabbi, and he's helped a great many people (including me).
Pardes has excellent Jewish studies programs. I studied there for a while.
Best of luck to you in your endeavors, and I'm sorry that you had such a bad experience. I hope this helps
Anonymous
Rabbi Farber is an excellent Rabbi and lawyer. He helped me to get to the bottom of my 2 year 33aliyah "problems" that were the direct result of having converted thru a Hareidi Beis Din. He is a man who can be trusted and he is a real advocate for the gerim.
Nancy Cuevas Guzman
Referring to the kind comments above about Rabbi Farber and ITEM....Rabbi Farber has counseled me and on his advise I opened my case and all is underway. The work they do at ITEM is marvelous and I am grateful to them and you for putting out the word.
As far as Pardes, I went to the Summer Program last year. I joined their Ulpan, Aleph, and felt completely lost, for the other students were already speaking Hebrew and they were moving too fast for me to catch up. Pardes told me I could not be in their program without Hebrew. Also, not that it matters so much, but I am a little more bent towards Orthodox. I went back to Aish Essentials and finally on to Shearim College of Jewish Studies in Har Nof, an Orthodox seminary which I loved, the only one I could find with a Sephardic Heritage Program. Rabbi Adelman, who is secretary to Rabbi Eisenstein, with a huge sarcastic smile, told me and my 3 witnesses at their private Haraedi Beit Din that he had placed a call to the Director of Shearim saying that I am a Marrano and they will not allow my "Corrective Conversion". I received the call that morning from the office of Shearim with the news that because of this I will not be allowed back in school.
All of this is confusing and heart-breaking to me.
Mrs. Vorst adamantly dissuades all of her students at Ohel Sarah Imenu, NOT to go to Ulpan. However, she does not speak Hebrew herself, 40 years after her conversion. She teaches her own Hebrew course, which I could not understand. It happens to be the only course she personally teaches. (She hires teachers for other subjects....which is not much.) Women that leave Ohel Sarah Imenu have no Hebrew. Without Hebrew, life in Israel is rough. My next school will be an Ulpan!
Anonymous (the ITIM and Pardes one)
I went to the Haifa University ulpan. It's private so it's a little money, but I got a scholarship. They're really quite good, with excellent teachers. I went from somewhere sort of mid-rama alef to mid-rama gimmel in a summer. While I still need to work on my reading comprehension a bit, I can understand news on the radio, many conversations, and can talk with people. There's a good mix of people in the ulpan program ranging from rabbinical students to Middle East scholars to your average "summer tourist" types, and a good range of ages (ie not just university students but a wide spectrum of adults as well).
Though if you're an olah, you can get ulpan through the Jewish Agency and the Mercazei Klita.
Glad to hear you'd already discovered ITIM and I hope that it will prove helpful.
Anonymous
I suggest you call my rabbi, Yaakov Shimon; he is not afraid of Sarah Vorst. But if you don't speak Hebrew you won't get very far with him, as he speaks no English. Good luck. You can email me for his cell phone or call the Yeshiva, Nachalat Tzvi, at 02-5836021.
He said would put out ads in the Religious newspapers. It is a Hillul Hashem to treat converts this way.
NVST18@gmail.com
hamsa
it's a hillul hashem for jews to treat ANYONE this way...
Nancy Cuevas Guzman
Thanks for leaving that information. Also, thank you for your activism in this matter. The very act of informing your rabbi is a great help! Ultimately every step that you take against injustices or very action taken to help the convert is recorded. Perhaps people don't always recognize your efforts, but HaShem never misses the things that you do and say. Sorry, if I gave you a bad time. I am only trying to protect others from potential harm. Please continue to encourage your rabbis to look into the matter. Your rabbis may also find that Rabbi Farber and ITEM have case upon case of converts reporting problems with Ohel Sarah Imenu and Rabbi Eisenstein. That should be plenty of evidence that would satisfy their need for documentation. I also hope that more girls and women come forward, however, most have had to leave Israel altogether because they could not obtain conversion and they have not left forwarding addresses. That presents a real problem for us, one that has protected Ohel Sarah Imenu for a long, long time.
Anonymous
ohel sarah imenu is a scam!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm gonna give you all a bit of advice. and I pray to Hashem that you all take serious heed to it. If you are a part of Mrs. Vorst's program, then leave and don't look back. If you have already left, then forget you were ever there. If you still have not converted, then find another way to do so. Mrs Vorst is very manipulative and extremely calculating. Cut your losses short and MOVE ON!!!!!!!!!!! The only person who can get hurt from "exposing" them or "bringing them down" is YOU....not them!. Let it go folks.....LET IT GO!!!!!!!!!
Ploni Almoni
Nancy, I can relate to your story it sounds eerily similiar to mine.
I went to Israel at a young age trying to undergo gerut. I spent 2 years and thousands of dollars in a program that I won't name...I literally starved myself to pay the fees for the place and in the end they sent me away without completing my gerut, primarily it seemed, because I had run out of money. After this, I went to several places looking for help, eventually ending up at Ohel Sara Imeinu.
When I met Rabbi Zalman and Sara Vorst, they both promised and assured me that my troubles were about to end and that they would help me. Mrs. Vorst told me that no student had ever taken more than 6-10 months to complete her program and go to the mikvah. However, upon entering the student quarters I met a girl who was a crypto jew of spanish or moroccan descent who had been there for 2 years. She launched into an almost manic tirade about how terrible it was and how Mrs. Vorst was racist and told me "go away, far away from this place and never come back". I went to sleep that night feeling disturbed. I had already been messed around by one program, been used as a shabbos goy and various other slave-esque labour, had my financial resources entirely depleted, wasted several years (by that point I had been trying to become a bas Sara v'Avraham for just over 3 years), and been chewed up and spat out by the system. I was burnt out, and being particularly young at the time (I was a teenager when I began my journey), was having a lot of trouble taking care of myself. My health had deteriorated, I was suffering from malnutrition, and I didn't want to believe that I had just walked into another abusive conversion program.
So I stayed. Not for very long mind you. Within 3 weeks I was thrown onto the street in the middle of the night by Michaela, Sara Vorsts spy, recruited to sleep in the student quarters and spy on the students to make sure that they're not "secret christians". During the time I was there I was verbally and emotionally abused, taken advantage of, humiliated, castigated, denigrated and publically shamed. I was accused of having "too big of a klippah". When I left, friends remaining in the program were told that I was promiscuous (something to do with wearing my hair out?!!) and to stay away from me. Calls were made to other organisations telling them not to accept me as a student and generally trashing my reputation amongst english speaking programs, schools and even homeless shelters (some of these calls came from the previous program I had been in and I am not sure to what extent Mrs. Vorst was involved, though I do know that she had spoken with the director of the other program and had said bad things about said director to me, while saying bad things about me to the director from the other side of her face.)
As for Zalman... he was a known molestor of women prior to his employment at Ohel Sara Imeinu and it baffles me that A) he was allowed to keep his smicha after the first time he was busted and B) that he was then employed in a womens midresha of all places. I am not sure whether Mrs. Vorst knew that she was actively providing fodder for his perversion or whether she was willfully blind to it but I do know that she and Michaela the spy, aided and abetted him in victimising these girls and women. Last I heard, 8 of his victims were taking him to court. I do not know the result of it but I am certain that there are many more women who haven't come forward out of shame and fear.
As a result of all this I became homeless in Israel and wandered the streets sleeping in fields and such for many months before I was able to find employment and an apartment in Jerusalem. I continued to search for programs but in the end decided simply to continue learning Torah until people forgot my name and until I recovered from the shame and abuse that I suffered at the hands of these people who are taking advantage of the innocent, sincere neshamot who are searching for truth and to be accepted in Jewish society.
When I began this journey all those years ago, I gave up a lot in order to undertake it. I was all but disowned from my family, I left college halfway through a university degree, I invested my entire heart, soul, mind and being, and every tangible thing of value, every cent that I had, was hocked, pawned and sold to finance flights and exorbitant costs of conversion program fees. I reduced myself to a scrawny hobo in rags from trying and in the end, it got me nowhere. Nobody would help me because naturally, who are the rabbis and rebetzins going to believe? Some grubby little goy like me? Or their fellow jews who hold respectable positions in jewish society? I had no chance of being believed, or of finding help, so in the end I had some kind of a nervous breakdown. I went through a long period of identity crisis, where essentially I felt that I was a jew, I knew that I was a jew, but yet somehow I wasn't one. I had learnt and studied myself to bones and it didn't help me. It didn't matter whether I knew the halachot or whether I followed them. It only mattered if I had the money. And I didn't understand. And I still don't understand. I don't understand how they can shatter the lives of people who gave up everything for Israel, for its people, its torah, its God and its land.
To this day, I continue to love klal yisrael with all my heart and soul. I am in galus in chutzlah eretz now, but I miss Israel every single day. I continue to study parshah, keep kosher and shabbos, davan and stay in contact with my "real family", the friends and spiritual companions I met throughout my travels in Israel. I continue to support jewish causes. I continue to love each and every jew, even the people who showed me no mercy, though I still resent to a certain degree that they failed me so terribly. I watch the news and see what is happening in the land and I cry. Am I a jew? I don't know. The ultra orthodox say not. They say that I'm not good enough for them or for the jewish people. I sit here in exile, rejected by my own society and treated like a "religious nut" because of the extreme lack of religiosity of any kind in my area (people are militarily anti-religious here). At the same time I am also rejected by the very people whom I have striven to emulate and become a part of. I am like a mule - half horse, half donkey, the mule is kicked at by the horses and bitten by the donkeys and chased off into the wilderness by both of them.
To Nancy, I wish you the best of luck continuing your conversion. Don't give up. And the same to everyone else under similiar circumstances. To anyone at Mrs. Vorsts program I strongly advise you to leave and seek help elsewhere. I also issue a strong warning not to use her home computer as it is tapped. Her computer records keystrokes and she WILL go into your personal email etc. and read your private mail and may gather information about who you know in case she needs it to blackmail or threaten you with in the future. Go to an internet cafe on rechov yaffa or ben yehuda instead.
As for me, I intend to keep trying, and hope that Hashem guides me to the right people and helps me to make the right decisions in order to succeed. I am not as young and naive and gullible, nor as weak and helpless, as I was back then, so perhaps this time I will be okay.B'ezrat Hashem.
Anonymous
I
have been silently reading these comments for quite some time now. I’ve
decided to have my voice heard. I’ve started my own blog about this
whole thing.
http://ohelsarahimenu.blogspot.com/
Anonymous
Some of the disturbing things that happen in the Ohel Sarah program are the following:
-They want you to live in the student housing, and they will go thru your personal belongings and look for anything they might use to "prove" that you are a secret christian. They feel it is their duty in protecting Judaism, to riffle thru your possessions when you are out and read your diaries, your letters, etc... Mrs Vorst and Mrs Lawson are excessively paranoid and suspicious about people being secret christians....
- I have seen Mrs Vorst publically ridicule, abuse and humiliate certain of her students (not all, as she seems to know who she can get away with it with). It was extremely painful to watch and not feel that I could speak out against this behavior at the time without jeopardizing my own standing (I am ashamed to say that I was trying to save my own skin).
- Mrs Vorst told her students once to "shun" a certain former student and not to have anything to do with this girl (or else WE would be subject to suspicion)... the girl had done nothing wrong or inappropriate except disagree with Mrs Vorst. She had a whole class on how this girl was a bad influence on us. It was shocking and unbelievable to me that I was sitting in a class with this going on.
- Mrs Vorst tried to get us to sever our ties with anyone who was not on her approval list (even in my case, with my Orthodox Rabbi and wife who were my dearest friends and emotional support and spiritual mentors). She even wanted us to sever relationships with people who were friends with people who were not on her approved list.
- Also, without proof but with strong certainty, she offers the girls to use her computer (after saying we couldn't frequent places like internet cafes or use the public library computer), presumably so she then get "into" our emails and read our emails and see what websights we were getting mail from. She would not see anything wrong with this.
- There is much more I could write, but suffice it say, women should be warned before they commit their time and money to this conversion school ... they need to know the potential challenges they will face there.
- also let it be known that inspite of what the Rabbis on the Beis Din "promise" and "assure you" about your ability be able to make aliyah with a Hareidi conversion, it ended up being a HUGE obstacle and nightmare for my aliyah approval. So if you are wanting to make aliyah you need to get a conversion through the Rabbinut.
Why did I stay in this program which I was obviously so unhappy with and illsuited for? Because when you come to Israel you are facing so much stress, lack of money, working against a time factor (if you want to make aliyah.... the 18 month thing), you don't know where to go, who to believe, what is the best course of action... plus just being in a foreign country, on your own alone is nearly overwhelming. Once I realized what I had gotten into, I simply could not bear to try to find another school and start the process all over again... I knew I just needed to lay low and stick it out, not make waves.
I would like to spare other women the suffering and stress that I endured there and that I saw and heard of many many other girls did also.
Anonymous
How is it possible for me to have an opinion, without knowing clearly the other side?
The truth is, i'm not even sure if I know this side??
Why are the Jews so strick with conversion?
You want to be Christian just except the man nailed to the boards and your good to go no? The sprinkle a little water on you or whatever in some "orthodox" sects...
but that's all no?
Why are these jews so strick? what's the big deal, just let whoever wants in in...
although I am curious why anyone would want to join them. Let's look backwards, you have the holocoust, for some reasonthe the crazy Nazi's tried to wipe them out,
during the 1500,1600's there was mass murders or them, in the 1100's the arabs pushed them out of spain or whatever with murder, the christains before that tried to wipe them out, before that was the romains, the greeks, who the heck would want to join them? They are cursed anyways no? what good could come out of them, they are all going to be gone soon anyways no?
Anonymous
in an odd way, you make an interesting point...
"just let whoever wants in...in"
i mean really, who would WANT to be a Jew? the fact that in spite of everything you listed in the way of holocausts, expulsions, being hunted, hounded and murdered from one end of the earth to the other, that someone actually wants to be a jew!?
these indiviudals sell all their possessions, give up home, family, careers, medical benefits, reputation, support systems, break the hearts of their families, travel to a hostile, dangerous foreign country only to be forced to jump through unbelievably hoops, overcome huge obstacles and stumbling blocks that are put in front of them by the religious jews ... they do this all because something inside them is telling them that they are suppose to align themselves with the people of israel... the God of Israel.... and then the people that are suppose to be helping them doubt their sincerity! ... and try to make it even harder for them??!!
but you have one huge misconception... the jews aren't going away anywhere any time.soon or basically EVER!
Hashem is regathering His exiles from the four corners of the earth... and they are returning ... and nothing is going to stop this flood... in spite of the fact that many of the religious jews are making it so horribly difficult for them... i think some people may have alot to answer for in the despicable way they are treating the ger...
Concerned Yid
I've noticed that the blog got cancelled, I am more than willing to continue a blog, it really doesn't have to be negative stories.
A blog that allows converts to tell their stories and leave advice for future converts.Also stories about living in Israel will be featured.
The one I will start is http://conversioninisrael.blogspot.com/
Please send me your stories concernedyid@gmail.com
Anonymous
now wait a second. let's analize your words, and see if what I got was right :
No one should want to be a Jew. Yet , despite all we listed, you have individuals who do want to be Jewish. Why do they want to be Jewish? Becuase they realized, that the Jewish people, as you said your self
"the jews aren't going away anywhere any time.soon or basically EVER! "
So, when certain "individuals" who for whatever reason, come across the Jews or come across the idea that the Jews will, again as you said, exist forever (whatever forever means) should not the people who are Jewish test them? and make sure they are becoming Jewish for the right reasons, as you said, to people apart of the nation of G-d, and to keep the Torah, and the mitzvot (commandments, 613 of them, all of them, not less even one, which means everything)
Is that really to much to ask for? Sincerety. and ensuring they are doing it for the right reasons, and not the "wonderful benefits"...
not to mention, it aint easy being Jewish....becuase man they have alot of rules to follow.....and these converts have to keep them, even more so then secular turned religous jews!
Again, is it to much to ask for sincerety? I hear where they are coming from, ok, so maybe they are alittle extreme, but in today's world, everything is extreme....
Anonymous
"....should not the people who are Jewish test them? and make sure they are
becoming Jewish for the right reasons, as you said, to people apart of
the nation of G-d, and to keep the Torah, and the mitzvot
(commandments, 613 of them, all of them, not less even one, which means
everything)
Is that really to much to ask for? Sincerety."
Dear Reply to the Reply,
If the Jews could only keep one mitzvot...."The positive and active commandment to love your fellow Jew as yourself".....but the Ultra-Orthodox cannot even keep that one simple commandment. Without it, all their praying and mitzvot is irrelevant.
Conversion programs are made up of people, not idols. You cannot control a convert's every thought or motive. Perhaps if you trust in Hashem, that He will do His job and you do yours then we won't be out straining ourselves trying to "catch insincerity" because as a mere human, you never know if you are bias or misreading what you see in another person. Who are any of us to say who is worthy? It's just mind control!
antiShmarya
what does keeping one mitzva have to do with anything? very confused by your first paragraph. explain.
I'm also not sure what trust in Hashem has to do with this? From my understanding, the Jews were giving rules. and every major rule, had it's detials. Within the rules, there was conversion. so what follows, is within conversion, there are rules.
Like Ruth, let's go learn how she "struggled" to convert. There are other examples in the scriptures of their rules for converstions...it's very confusing to see what bothers you and people like you so much? Why should they just open their doors, with arms wide open, and presents and smiles for people who might be coming to join "us' for the wrong reasons? Why can't the Jews be selective of who they allow into their relgion. Who are we to put rules on them, and say what's fair and what's not fair for them to determine what are the proper tactics for allowing one to enter their holy relgion? and if they choose to make people jump through burning hoops, then so be it. If you don't like it, don't join. It's no different then applying for medical school, or law school. They have critera for getting in...it's no different over here...let their leaders determine what's the critera... you want to argue about the critera? You have to be learnned, that's just ovbious, you don't know the issues inside out, of the top of your head, with clarity, your ovbiously not educated enough to join the conversation