twelve years before the proclamation of the ban, Setton asked Goldman on behalf of a Bet Din in Buenos Aires requesting his help in the conversion of a Syrian Arab living in their community. Setton warmly recommended this prospective convert whose motivation is for the sake of heaven."Our hopes are great that you will promptly do everything and even more...for it is known how great is the mitzvah(of conversion) and its reward."*
Goldman in his responsum states that it is impossible to accept proselytes in this country because, according to rabbinic sources,” one must inform the prospective convert in advance of some aspects of the punishment for the violation of commandments such as the desecrating of the Sabbath and eating forbidden foods.
To my consternation, and that of every upright person, the scourge has spread here, for many of our brethren have abandoned the Torah , so that stringent mitzvot like the desecration of the Sabbath have become the lightest of the light. These violators so outnumber us, that if one should find a Jew who keeps the Shabbat and like, he would be considered on a level with a tzaddik. There are so few that a child could make a list.
Now imagine, if we warn the convert concerning all the above(mitzvot) and afterwards when he sees with his own eyes, how many of our brothers trespass everything with contempt, then he will surely ask: what was all this that the Rabbis of Israel warned us, is not the House of Israel just like all the gentiles? Are we not then responsible when, God forbid, he vilifies all of the disciplines of Judaism ...therefore I'll have nothing to do with this case.?
Goldman held an absolutist view. A non-Jew could not hope for a valid conversion, even if he/she were to fulfill all of the requirements of the rabbinic codes. The Rabbi of Moisesville
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