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
The Latest
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Life Israeli Rightist: Conversion Is Existential Issue
The debate over conversion has been heating up, here in America and in Israel. Last week, the left-wing Israeli daily Ha’aretz weighed in with a searing editorial urging the rabbinate to stop obstructing the conversion of the masses of immigrants from the former Soviet Union who are not considered Jewish under halacha. This week, it’s…
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Life Who’s Your Messiah?
“If you believe that a dead man is the messiah, does that disqualify you from converting to Judaism?” That’s the question raised in a Jerusalem Post article about an immigrant from the former Soviet Union who came to Israel under its Law of Return and was interested in converting to Judaism. While the rabbis were…
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Life The Rabbis Said Choose: You Can Be an Olympian or a Jew — But Not Both
Benjamin Ish-Shalom, head of Israel’s Joint Conversion Institute, recently gave an interview to The Jewish Week that should makes one’s blood boil. Ish-Shalom’s institute is the product of a collaboration between different streams of Judaism that has worked to help facilitate the conversion of the large numbers of immigrants from the former Soviet Union who…
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Life Ha’aretz: Stop Blocking Conversion of FSU Immigrants
An impassioned editorial in Ha’aretz rails against the Orthodox rabbinate for erecting barriers to the conversion of hundreds of thousands of immigrants from the former Soviet Union who were brought to Israel under the Law of Return: Bitter infighting, saturated with political power plays, deal-making of the lowest form, and strong-arm tactics driven by personal…
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Life Adlerstein vs. Angel on Conversion
Last month, Rabbi Marc Angel, rabbi emeritus of New York’s historic Congregation Shearith Israel, penned an impassioned critique of the adoption of new — and, he argued, needlessly restrictive — conversion policies by the Rabbinical Council of America, an organization he once served as its president. The article generated plenty of discussion in the Orthodox…
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