Editing Conversion to Judaism (section)

===1950s: proposed joint beth din===
In the 1950s Rabbi [[Joseph Soloveitchik]] and other members of the [[Rabbinical Council of America]] engaged in a series of private negotiations with the leaders of Conservative Judaism's [[Rabbinical Assembly]], including [[Saul Lieberman]]; their goal was to create a joint Orthodox-Conservative national beth din for all Jews in the United States. It would create communal standards of marriage and divorce. It was to be modeled after the Israeli Chief Rabbinate, where all the judges would have been Orthodox, while it would have been accepted by the larger Conservative movement as legitimate. Conservative rabbis in the Rabbinical Assembly created a ''Joint Conference on Jewish Law'', devoting a year to this effort.{{Citation needed|date=May 2009}}

For a number of reasons, the project did not succeed. According to Orthodox Rabbi Louis Bernstein, the major reason for its failure was the Orthodox rabbis' insistence that the Conservative Rabbinical Assembly agree to expel Conservative rabbis for actions they took prior to the formation of the new beth din, and the RA refused to do so.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Bernstein|first=Louis|title=The Emergence of the English Speaking Orthodox Rabbinate|publisher=Yeshiva University|year=1977}}</ref> According to Orthodox Rabbi [[Emanuel Rackman]], former president of the RCA, the major reason for its failure was pressure from [[haredi]] Orthodox rabbis, who held that any cooperation between Orthodoxy and Conservatism was forbidden. In 1956, Rabbi [[Harry Halpern]], of the ''Joint Conference'' wrote a report on the demise of this beth din. He writes that negotiations between the Orthodox and Conservative denominations were completed and agreed upon, but then a new requirement was demanded by the RCA: The RA must "impose severe sanctions" upon Conservative rabbis for actions they took before this new beth din was formed. Halpern writes that the RA "could not assent to rigorously disciplining our members at the behest of an outside group." He goes on to write that although subsequent efforts were made to cooperate with the Orthodox, a letter from eleven [[Rosh yeshiva|Rosh Yeshivas]] was circulated declaring that Orthodox rabbis are forbidden to cooperate with Conservative rabbis.<ref>Proceedings of the CJLS of the Conservative Movement 1927–1970 Vol. II, p.850-852.</ref>