Rabbis, Cowards and Cynics: Why Religious Freedom Has Few Champions in Israel

By Rabbi Eric H. Yoffie
Haaretz
October 23, 2014

http://www.haaretz.com/opinion/.premium-1.622381

Wherever you look right now in the Jewish press, you find distressing stories about conversion to Judaism - and about the ugly politics of the conversion process.

Conversion should be moving and sublime, demanding but profoundly meaningful, and reflective of Judaism’s broadly inclusive values. Sadly, what we see in the media in the last few weeks is how human weakness and political opportunism have caused pain and suffering to candidates for conversion in America and turned conversion in Israel into a political football. Whatever else happens, this much is certain: Sacred values have been trampled.

The “voyeur case,” as it’s been called in the press, involves Rabbi Barry Freundel, a Washington, D.C. rabbi accused of videotaping women candidates for conversion while they were naked in the mikveh (ritual bath). The Jewish world has responded to these accusations with outrage and revulsion. But since Rabbi Freundel denies the charges and nothing as yet has been proven, full consideration of the matter will have to wait.

For now, it can simply be noted that in some ways the case is not about conversion at all; it is about rabbinic misconduct and exploitation of religious authority, of the sort that can happen in a variety of settings and by clergy of all movements and all faiths. At the same time, it does raise questions about the problems of conversion in the American Orthodox world, which in recent years has adapted its procedures, usually not for the better, to accommodate the demands of the Israeli Chief Rabbinate. At a later point, these matters will need to be discussed.