- Home
- About
- Datebook: Events Calendar
- Women's Philanthropy
- Subscribe to e-newsletter
- Young Adults
- Contribute
- Where Your Money Goes
- Professional Groups
- Community Resources
- Volunteer
- Local Jewish News
- Search
Jewish Community News
News: June 2006
Orthodox conversion opening up to
intermarried couples
By Larry Luxner (JTA)
When is an Orthodox conversion really kosher? How long should a prospective Jew have to study before being universally accepted as a convert? And how much should a rabbi charge to supervise the process?
No one has easy answers to these questions. In fact, until recently few
Orthodox rabbis even were asking them, at least not in a public forum.
And most, if not all, did not accept applicants with Jewish spouses.
Now the Orthodox community gradually is encouraging non-Jewish spouses
to convert in accordance with halacha, or Jewish law.
“We're reaching out to intermarrieds to encourage them to apply
for conversions if they are truly and sincerely dedicated” to being
religious Jews, said Rabbi Leib Tropper, co-founder of the group Eternal
Jewish Family, or EJF, based in Monsey, N.Y.
Demographics may have a lot to do with the change of heart. According
to Tropper, 50 percent of non-Orthodox Jews in the United States are currently
marrying non-Jews, and another 20 percent are married to spouses who have
undergone Reform or Conservative conversions -- which Orthodox Jews often
don't consider “kosher.”
In March, EJF hosted a conference in Florida called ``Universally Accepted
Conversions in Intermarriage.”
The event attracted 170 leading rabbis ranging from modern Orthodox to
Lubavitch, including the chief rabbis of Israel and Poland.
“The notion circulating in the Jewish community that intermarried
couples are unwelcome and that Orthodox rabbinical courts will not entertain
their conversions is being quickly dispelled by the activities of this
organization,” conference chairman Marvin Jacob told JTA.
The group has established seven rabbinical courts in the United States
and is in the process of creating more. As rabbis join the EJF, they become
part of the network of courts, or batei din, that perform conversions,
Jacob said.
Tropper said the group doesn't seek to proselytize, but rather “to
create universally accepted standards for becoming Jewish.”
Rabbi Moshe Krupka, the Orthodox Union's national executive director,
agreed that standardizing conversions is a good idea.
“Our hope is that we're not going to utilize mediocre standards.
When we as a faith community welcome a convert into our midst, our standard
should be acceptance of the Torah and a Torah way of life, so that it
elevates the community as a whole,” Krupka said. “The last
thing you want is for people to go through a life-altering conversion,”
then find out later that the process was faulty.
Another rabbi said the conference, and EJF itself, represent a sea change
in thinking on the part of the U.S. Orthodox establishment.
“The trend here is to accept reality. There are about a million
intermarried Jews out of 5.2 million Jews in America. What do you do with
them?” said the rabbi, who asked that neither he nor his congregation
be identified. “Many of these Jews would convert halachically, but
until now, the Orthodox world has written them off.”
By standardizing the conversion process, EJF hopes to lure in mixed couples
that vow to practice Orthodox Judaism and keep kosher.
News
Features
Information