Welcome to the Forward’s coverage of conversion, the process by which those of other faiths adopt Judaism. Most streams of Judaism, unlike many other religions, do not evangelize.
Conversion
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News Does Famed 1899 Painting Debunk ‘Fiddler on the Roof’ Myth on Intermarriage?
KIEV — No Jewish visitor to Ukraine’s National Art Museum can pass this painting without stopping to look. A Jewish woman is being assaulted, not by anti-Semites but by a crowd of angry Jews. Pressed to the fence by the mob, her hair is undone, her blouse is ripped, her eyes horrified. The rabbi is…
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Life I Grew Up in South Korea — Here’s Why I’m Embracing Judaism
I grew up in South Korea until the age of 15, which was when I moved to Ohio to go to a boarding school. South Korea has less than 100 Jews out of a 50 million population, which is composed of 99.9% Koreans. I did read comic books based on the Talmud when I was…
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Opinion After Orthodox-Only Mikveh Law, Time To Rein In the Israeli Rabbinate
As a woman who underwent Orthodox conversion, I was livid when I read about the controversial Israeli bill that was formally passed into law July 25. The bill allows local Orthodox rabbinates to ban non-Orthodox conversions in publicly funded mikvehs. The ultra-Orthodox United Torah Judaism Party may have introduced this piece of legislation, but in…
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Fast Forward Israeli Law Bars Using Mikvehs for Non-Orthodox Conversions
A controversial bill that would enable local Orthodox rabbinates to bar non-Orthodox Jewish conversion ceremonies in publicly funded mikvehs was passed in the Knesset. The bill — introduced by the haredi Orthodox United Torah Judaism Party and opposed by many North American Jewish leaders — passed into law on Monday night, the Jerusalem Post ….
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Fast Forward After Conversion Controversy, Does Israeli Rabbinate Need Tweak — or a Revolution?
(JTA) — Three months after Israel’s Chief Rabbinate rejected his authority to perform conversions, one of America’s most prominent Modern Orthodox rabbis joined with Natan Sharansky to advance a message: The rabbinate needs to become more open. But not too much more. A widely respected rabbi in New York’s Orthodox community, Haskel Lookstein saw his credentials…
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Fast Forward 200 Protest Rejection of Conversion by Rabbi Haskel Lookstein
JERUSALEM — About 200 demonstrators protested next to the offices of the Israeli Chief Rabbinate as a hearing took place about the legitimacy of a conversion conducted by the prominent American Orthodox Rabbi Haskel Lookstein. On Wednesday, the Supreme Rabbinical Court heard the appeal of a case in which a rabbinical court in Petach Tikvah…
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News Israeli Rabbinical Court Rejects Rabbi Who Converted Ivanka Trump
An Israeli rabbinical court did not accept a conversion by an Orthodox rabbi who also helped Ivanka Trump become Jewish. In the latest case exemplifying the tension between Israel’s rabbinate and Orthodox groups in the Diaspora, a religious court prevented the marriage of an Israeli man and an American woman, who converted under a well-respected…
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News Does Push for India’s ‘Lost Tribe of Menashe’ Signal New Interest in Far-flung Jewish Communities?
Israel will spend 8.1 million shekels, or about $2 million, to bring more than 712 members of India’s Bnei Menashe community to Israel this year, the Israeli news site Walla reported May 22. In the past, the Ministry of Absorption and the Jewish Agency have handled group immigration to Israel. But in the case of…
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