AMBIVALENCE IN PROSELYTISM

Rabbi Shaul David Setton(1851-1930), the spiritual leader of the Syrian Jewish community of Buenos Aires , prohibited even halakhic conversions under Orthodox auspices.” The prohibition covered all of Argentina "until the end of time"(kol yemei olam) and is, to a certain extent, still in effect today.”

The stated reason for forbidding conversions is"because life in this city(Buenos Aires ) is exceedingly wanton, and everybody does as he pleases; there is no rabbi serving the Jewish community, whose authority is respected by the government or any other party." One of the co-sponsors of the decree was Rabbi Aharon Halevi Goldman(1854-1932), who provided its halakhic and ideological foundation. Goldman, an outstanding Talmudic scholar born in Russia , in 1889 became the founder and spiritual leader of the Jewish colony, Moisesville (Kiryat Moshe), located 600 kilometers north of Buenos Aires in the province of Santa Fe .

Goldman clearly states his view of the reason why Jewish men wish to have their gentile wives converted in Argentina :

" was startled to hear and alarmed to see"(Isaiah 21:3) the news of the state of affairs in the land, that there are men who have thrown off the yoke of Heaven. They have taken gentile wives and have begotten with them children. Then to cover up their wantonness, they wish to have their alien wives and foreign children accepted as converts to and included in the Congregation of Israel ...Who would be such a fool as to be taken in by their declaration that they sincerely wish to convert their alien wives and foreign children, since all their trickery and deceit are nothing but an attempt to whitewash their irresponsibility, in order to obtain religious sanction.”

Setton who promulgated and executed the"eternal" ban was

not always against conversion in his community. In 1915, about

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