Jews, Are all Orthodox conversions to Judaism universally accepted as valid?

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Kevin

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I'm 20 and a gentile and I want to convert to Orthodox Judaism. I have this deep passion for Judaism and the Jewish people and know in my heart its what I want and want it to the fullest extent. I want to know, are all Orthodox conversions treated equally? Does it matter which Orthodox rabbi I go to and study under? Or do I need to go to someone particular? How can I get the most universally accepted Orthodox conversion?
Thanks. (oh I live in Brooklyn NY if that's helpful)
 
It does matter, these days. It's become more and more difficult. Now there is an "approved Rabbi list" put out by the Rabbinate in Israel as to who will be accepted by them and who wont.

There have been literally thousands of Orthodox converts who have had their conversions overturned because of infighting, one time over 40 THOUSAND conversions were overturned because someone had found ONE convert of this particular Rabbi who wasn't keeping the mitzvot anymore. So ALL of this Rabbis converts over the past three decades were dumped like so much trash, even though they had been living as Orthodox Jews all their lives since their conversions, had children and grandchildren who had married into the community - which then caused many MORE problems because now these kids were no longer Jews but were married TO Jews, and on and on and on.

And that's just one example of what's been going on. Absolutely disgusting. People who have had to wait for decades to convert sometimes, are now looking around going "So.....even if I do everything right, they can still nullify my conversion for no fault of my own?"

http://www.itim.org.il/_Uploads/dbsAttachedFiles/Jewishweek5.5.06-ChiefRabbinateBarringConversions.pdf

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/126074

So the American Rabbis - and I mean Orthodox - after declaring that the Israeli Rabbinate is causing a chillul hashem (desecration of God's name) by the way they are treating converts, decided to take matters into their own hands. After the outrage had subsided a bit, the American Rabbis decided to create their own unified system for conversions. There will be a central database into which all names of all converts will go, a membership for Rabbis who meet the qualifications, and there will be set standards for EVERYONE. These standards are now going to be based in large part on the Israeli Rabbinate's standards, but also be applicable to Americans.

In other words, now is not a very easy time to convert to Orthodox Judaism. In fact it's been so bad that people who actually want to convert Orthodox are converting Conservative instead and then making aliyah to Israel and then converting Orthodox there. And its even more difficult to convert to Orthodox Judaism in Israel than it is here.

So, if you are going to try to convert Orthodox in the USA, you will need to look over these pages of the new organization, and go from there.

http://www.judaismconversion.org/

Policies and Procedures:
http://www.judaismconversion.org/GPS_Policies_and_Procedures.html

List of Participating Beit Dins (where you will be officially declared as a Jew after your studies):
http://www.judaismconversion.org/batei.din.html

You can contact the one nearest to you, on this list. Stick to this list and you will be ok.
 
All orthodox conversions are accpeted by everyone. So just find your local Rabbi (and you shouldn't have a hard time at that, living in brooklyn).
 
there are some syrian communities which do not accept any converts and there is currently a rift between american and israeli rabbis about which rabbis may convert people. check with your local rabbi and ask if the conversion would be accepted by the israeli rabbinate (if he is on the accepted list). you can also contact the OU.
 
Not a Jew myself, but yes, all Orthodox conversions are accepted as valid.
 
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