The following is from my friend, the scholar Rabbi Dr. Marc Angel.
Shalom uvrakha,
We all should be deeply distressed by the ongoing oppression of halakhic converts by Israel’s Chief Rabbinate and its rabbinic courts. Already in 2006, the Chief Rabbinate began a process of undermining the status of Orthodox rabbis in the diaspora and undermining their halakhic converts. The extremism has reached a new level of ugliness in the recent invalidation of a conversion performed by Rabbi Haskel Lookstein, a venerable Orthodox rabbinic leader for many years. It is disgraceful that the Israeli Rabbanut acts so inappropriately and so wrongly; it is more disgraceful that the government of Israel empowers the extremist Rabbanut to control matters of Jewish status for those who wish to make Aliyah or be married in Israel. Please see my blog: https://www.jewishideas.org/blog/converts-yes-rabbanut-no-blog-rabbi-marc-d-angel
