Rav Moshe Sternbuch lambasted a Chief Rabbinate confirmation of Rav Ovadiah Yosef’s ruling that Ethiopian immigrants are Jewish, but should do giyur lechumrah.
Rav Sternbuch said that this contradicted the psak of “all the gedolei haTorah and hora’ah of the previous generation in Israel and overseas,” including Rav Moshe Feinstein, Rav Shach, the Minchas Yitzchok, Rav Shlomo Zalman Auerbach, Rav Yisroel Fisher and Rav Yosef Shalom Elyashiv, who all maintained that the group’s status was doubtful and that they need complete, individual geirus.
Meanwhile, Israel plans to bring 400 Ethiopians to join relatives in Israel prior to the March election, after importing 600 of the group last year.
Unlike most of Israel’s 140,000 Ethiopians, the 8,000 still in Africa claim to be descendants of Jews forcibly converted to Christianity generations ago. A 2015 commitment to fly the group to Israel by 2020 has been held up by budget constraints.
{Matzav.com Israel}
Can someone explain what the difference is between geirus lchumrah and regular geirus? Thank you
They’re plain and simple Goyim.
These are goyim pure and simple, ALL Ashkenazi poskim say these are pure goyim and marrying is an aveira gemura