Beit Din for Conversion

Question

Dear Rabbi,

I am interested to know if there is an official, uniform policy in the Conservative movement regarding what constitutes a Bet Din for conversion. The main question I have is, does the Conservative movement include women as members of a Bet Din? If so, how long has this policy existed? Also, how many persons are needed to make a Bet Din? And, is the Bet Din required to witness the immersion? Lastly, is there any official literature on the subject?

Answer

Being a pluralistic movement, as in many fields which serve the needs of a diverse community, the Conservative movement provides different options regarding the composition of its Beit Din for Conversion. While the Beit Din must be composed of three dayanim, the policy regarding the participation of women as dayanim is not uniform. In Israel, the head of the Beit Din for Conversions readily accepts women, and I have taken part a number of times in such a Beit Din. In the U.S. it seems that there is no overriding policy regarding women serving as a member of the Rabbinical Court. The reason may be that that issue is often linked to the issue of whether or not a woman is accepted as a witness. The question has been discussed at length in the movement's Committee for Law and Standard and the conclusion (although very controversial) was that women could be witnesses. Therefore, there should no longer be any bar to women's participation on a Rabbinical Court for Conversion. Nevertheless, there are Rabbis who do not accept this ruling and would not sit in a Beit Din if one of the participants is a woman. I have been told that in Canada, women cannot serve at all in their Batei Din for Conversion. I personally hope that this situation will change and allow women to serve on the Rabbinical Court.
Originally, the Beit Din was also present at the immersion, because immediately before that ritual the candidate for conversion was again asked if she/he accepts the bulk of the commandments. This is still the procedure in an Orthodox conversion. In the Conservative Movement, the candidate expresses his/her acceptance of the commandments at the meeting with the Beit Din, and afterward (also after the brit for men), she/he goes to the Mikveh. The accepted practice is that at least two of the dayanim assist at the mikveh to witness (two people are required for a witnessing to be valid) that he/she immerses completely in the water and says the proper blessings. If the dayanim are male and the person who converts is a woman, they wait outside, and another woman is inside and watches the immersion.

I hope I answered your questions.

Rabbi Monique Susskind Goldberg
November 2005