There is something very strange going on in the Rabbanut system right now.

As you surely know, recently a beis din in Petach Tikva rejected the conversion of a woman who had been converted by Rabbi Lookstein in the USA. She was applying for marriage, but they rejected her because of her conversion.

This has raised a bit of a hulabaloo, as how dare they reject Rabbi Lookstein's conversions. As an Orthodox rabbi, they should be accepting his converts.

I do not know why they rejected this woman, who is reportedly religious. I have yet to see a real reason offered, and the assumption is that it is because of who performed the conversion - Rabbi Lookstein.

The thing is, both chief rabbis, Rabbi Lau and Rabbi Yosef, have now announced that they recognize as valid conversions performed by Rabbi Lookstein and the Rabbanut as a whole does as well. Rabbi Lookstein is recognized by the Rabbanut for performing conversions. What the beis din in their rejection of her conversion was not dependent on the status of Rabbi Lookstein or any sort of list of approved rabbis held by the Rabbanut.

So either this beis din is a maverick beis din not following the guidelines of the Rabbanut, or they must have a really good reason to reject, and it would behoove someone to explain.. I have no problem with them being mavericks, but I think they should explain what the problem was that caused the rejection. Was it Rabbi Lookstein? Is it something in the lifestyle of the woman? Either way, in general there is a problem with questioning, after the fact, the conversion as performed by an orthodox rabbi, but without getting into that, why did they reject this woman's conversion?

As an aside, while this issue has nothing to do with Ivanka Trump, the press is having a field day with connecting all this to her. Every single article about talks about whether or not Ivanka Trump would be considered Jewish by the Rabbanut because she too was converted by Rabbi Lookstein. From the secular media I expect nothing, but from the frum media I would expect some sensitivity to the converts, as the Torah requires, and not remind them pointlessly about them being converts. If Ivanka Trump is not connected to the story, she does not need to be part of every single headline of every single article written about it.