Original protest poster opposing the chief rabbinate in general and Rabbi Goren in particular, specifically regarding “The Helen Zeidman Affair” (without mentioning their names) regarding acceptance of people who converted not in accordance with halachah. Signed in print on the poster are the gaon Rabbi Elazar Menachem Shach and under him, the gaon Rabbi Ya’akov Yisrael Kanievsky. Bnei Brak, 1970. Historic document.
“The Helen Zeidman Affair” took place in 1970 in Israel, beginning with the request of Helen Zeidman, who had converted via Reform, to be registered as a Jew in the State of Israel’s population registry, and progressing into the controversy over Zeidman’s conversion by Rabbi Shlomo Goren. Helen Zeidman [originally Helen Shannon], was a gentile from the United States with a doctorate in biology who arrived in Israel in 1964 with her young daughter, and she converted in a Reform beit din in Tel Aviv. Yet the interior ministry refused to register her as a Jew. In the end, she was converted by the chief rabbi of the IDF, Rabbi Shlomo Goren. (The conversion was ex post facto confirmed in the rabbinic court.) Zeidman’s accelerated conversion sparked criticism that it was done for political reasons. Among Chareidim, there were those who claimed that the conversion was ridiculous and lacked any validity. [Refer to the document before us.]
Zeidman’ conversion and the ruling of the brother and sister were the primary causes of the irreparable tear between Rabbi Goren, who was originally Chareidi himself, and a student at the Etz Chaim and Chevron yeshivahs, and the Chareidi rabbis, to the point that they excommunicated him and removed the title “Rabbi” from his name.
[1] leaf paper, approximately 12×17 cm. Before us is the original letter, including corrections that were for some reason not inserted in the end to the text of the public version.
Fine condition. Fold marks.