[citation needed] The roots of the organization go back to 1923 when it was founded as the Rabbinical Council of the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America.
For many years, the RCA was led by Rabbi Steven Dworkin, who served as executive vice-president until his death in January 2003.
The RCA was, for many years, affiliated with two yeshivas in Israel – Yeshivat HaDarom and the Gan Yavneh Youth Village.
[6] In 2007, the RCA established a Geirus Policies and Standards (GPS) committee, to strive for uniform conversion procedures by its affiliated rabbis and local rabbinical courts across the United States.
[7][8][9] Supporters of the GPS maintain that it would establish certainty for converts—particularly those looking to move to Israel and have their conversion recognized, create definite benchmarks, ensure observance of Jewish law by converts, and squelch past practices of questionable conversions that stemmed from situational pressure on individual rabbis.
The council announced it would also create a commission to identify ways that abuses of converts during the conversion process could be prevented.
The lawsuit was filed by a student at Georgetown University's law school who initially identified Kesher Israel Congregation, the synagogue where Freundel served as rabbi, the mikvah, and the law school as defendants for permitting Freundel’s alleged illegal activities to go unchecked.
[12] Two more lawsuits were filed by the end of 2014, alleging RCA was aware of irregular behavior on Freundel's part but failed to remove him from positions of authority.
[14] The RCA, along with Kesher Israel, the National Capital Mikvah, and the Beth Din of America, were named as settling defendants.
"[18] The original resolution was passed by a plurality in a vote that included less than ten percent of RCA members participating.