The Kohen's Fiancee

Another of Rav Yechezkel's achievements in London was to raise the standards of geirus (conversion). Before him, the beis din required of candidates only a commitment to Shabbos observance and to learn Jewish laws and customs. His contract added that candidates must live in a Jewish environment and show that their workplace would not interfere with Shabbos. He also kept congregational rabbis out of the process except to refer candidates, since a rabbi was often pressured to approve the conversion of a congregant's partner.

After the First World War, social mixing between Jews and non-Jews had grown and the number of people seeking conversion had risen sharply. The beis din generally refused those whose motive was marriage, but it often gave way when pressure came from high places. Rav Yechezkel never allowed any chief rabbi or officer of the United Synagogue to intimidate him into a doubtful conversion.

One prominent member of the community kept asking the beis din to convert his son's fiancee. After delaying for a while, Rav Yechezkel told the family that, since they were Kohanim, a Kohen cannot marry a convert regardless, so converting her would achieve nothing. Asked why he had not said so at the start, he explained that he did not want people to think the young man's status as a Kohen was the only obstacle, and that anyone seeking conversion in order to marry would be turned away. He wanted it clear that there was no favoritism, even for communal leaders. In his sixteen years of leadership the beis din accepted only five converts, compared with twenty-four in 1925 alone.