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From: R. Kovacs
Subject: Can certificates be revoked?
Date: 11 Tevet 5782
Nu, my zeyde told me about a man in Munkács whose conversion was questioned.
The man had converted properly. Three rabbis witnessed. He immersed. He accepted the commandments. Twenty years he lived as a Jew. He married a Jewish woman. His children were Jewish.
Then someone discovered that one of the witnessing rabbis had been, years before the conversion, involved in some dispute. A technical disqualification, something about testimony in a financial matter. The other side claimed this rabbi could not serve as a witness.
Twenty years later, they said his conversion might be invalid. Not because he did anything wrong. Not because the immersion did not happen. Because of a question about a rabbi from before he ever met the man.
My zeyde said: "The water was the same water. The words were the same words. The man was the same man. Only the paperwork changed."
The man died before it was resolved. His children still do not know if they are Jews.
—Shlomo Dov Kovacs
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