Ger Tsedek but not a Jew? - part 2

In another place I once mentioned that I had undergone "a universally unquestionable Orthodox conversion". This was and is not a statement of arrogance, just my understanding how reliable my beth din is in the rabbinic world. As I mentioned before, the shtar that they wrote for me on that day has been accepted in every place I needed it to be: the kollelim, the Rabbanut, the sokhnut, and El-Al security checks.

My confidence is not due to my own personal "worthiness", but to the reputation that my conversion rabbi has and to the quality of the relationship that I built with him while still a Goy. I also studied the halakhah of geirut quite a bit before believing I was ready to do it, and believed I understood what the difference between a genuine and a non-genuine conversion was.

Larry Lennhoff saw that statement and begged to disagree:

Sorry to disillusion you, but there is no such thing. Some the Syrian Jewish communities in the disapora only accept converts who have frum grandchildren, for example. I also know 20 year chassidic converts who were required to do a gerut l'chumra when they moved to a different chassidic community. Not to mention the recent uproar over conversions by the Israeli Rabbinate, the London Beit Din, plus the controversy over Rabbi Amar and Rabbi Eliyeshev's recent comments.

You can (or used to, and I bet will again) get a 90% acceptance rate on Orthodox conversions pretty easily. The next 8% is harder, and the final 2% is flat out impossible. The key is to let converts know this in advance so that it is not as big a deal if and when they run into it.

So if you are considering conversion, consider yourself forewarned.

Of course, one could argue that the organizations I mentioned above are no proof of anything (especially the last two). Perhaps if it is possible to slip one past the beth din, one can certainly dupe the Jewish Agency.

And on the other hand, one could say that the only reality that matters is that in shamayim, not the checkpoints run by human beings. But that attitude raises difficulties, too. Last year a Jerusalem street vendor (who lived in a cave in the Jerusalem forest) died of a hunger strike in prison because the state refused to let him make aliyah. He was absolutely certain that he was a Hebrew, and called himself "David son of King David". The only problem was that on earth, not in shamayim, he was the son of Native Americans and could not produce any conversion certificate.

In future postings I plan to deal with these problems mentioned by Larry Lennhoff one by one and attempt to get some clarity on them.