The Netanya Rabbinical Court has ruled that an American couple who claimed to have converted to Judaism 30 years ago and even made aliyah, and their Israeli-born daughter, cannot be considered Jewish. The court ruled after the daughter petitioned it to have her certificate of conversion accepted. The petitioner said her parents, both born Christians and Baptist ministers, had converted to Judaism in a rabbinical court in Tampa, Florida, in 1984, and that upon converting, they were married in a Jewish ceremony and moved to Israel, where she was born. The woman presented the court with an English-language document titled "Certificate of Acceptance into the Jewish Faith" that bore three signatures. The certificate of conversion had previously been submitted, as per procedure, to the Chief Rabbinate. After it was examined, the woman was informed that then-Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar did not recognize its validity and would not confirm the woman's Jewish status. The Netanya Rabbinical Court found that the woman's father is the founder and leader of a group called Netzarim, and that he believes Jesus was the messiah and that the Netzarim are his followers. The father published a book in which he outlined his view that Jesus was an Orthodox Jew and that Christians had perverted his path. As a believer in Judaism, he converted. His daughter translated the book from English to Hebrew. The court ruled that a review of the parents' file from the Interior Ministry (which oversees immigration) showed that the couple had declared themselves to be Jewish and had been permitted to make aliyah, but the file contained neither evidence of Jewish birth nor any document proving that they had converted, which raised the court's suspicion that they had not declared their status as converts because their conversion had not been conducted in accordance with Interior Ministry standards. The court declared that neither the woman nor her parents could be recognized as Jews under civil law, which stipulates the conditions for recognizing a convert as eligible to make aliyah under the Law of Return, and were therefore not entitled to hold Israeli citizenship. The court ruled that the woman "is not a Jew, and her name must be added to the list of people barred from marrying as Jews."
Rabbinical court declares conversion of US couple invalid
Netanya court tells petitioner seeking to have her conversion certificate accepted that her parents provided no documentation of their conversion 30 years ago, leading to suspicion that it was not done in line with Israeli law • Woman cannot marry as Jew.
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