Forwarding a thread from Areivim to Avodah:<br><br><b>Saul Z Newman Posted:</b><br><a href="http://www.ugandamission.org/news/Abayudaya.htm">http://www.ugandamission.org/news/Abayudaya.htm</a><br><br><a href="http://tinyurl.com/ywrwng">
http://tinyurl.com/ywrwng</a><br><br><b>I Posted:</b><br>... I heard they converted through the conservative movement. It is highly likely that the reason they converted through conservative is that they didn't know better. It is also highly likely that when they converted they did so with full intention to practice halacha 100% (even if they didn't know quite what that meant). As such it is possible that they are really Jewish - but I don't know.
<br><br><b>Zev Sero Responded:</b><br>Not if the dayanim were pesulim. Three hedyotot can convert, even if<br>they shouldn't, but three apikorsim cannot.<br><br><b>I replied but got moderated to Avodah:</b><br>This might be for Avodah but i'm not sure.
<br>I guess this is just the question of whether anyone alive today can be considered an Apikores or just a Tinok Shenishba. I doubt anyone involved in the conversion knew Shas.<br><br>On a similar but sad note, there is a Gemarrah in Brachot which says that one cannot name a shul "Beth Am" because it connotes a place of communal gathering rather than avodat Hashem, but googling "beth Am" gives the following: " Results 1 - 10 of about 944,000 for beth Am. (
0.21 seconds) " What is sad is not that that many congregations voted to name their shuls by a name explicitely assur in the Gemarrah, but that none of their Rabbi's actually learned (or cared about) the first tractate of Shas to know it's forbidden at all.
<br>~Liron<br>