This is 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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Community What Every Prospective Convert to Judaism Deserves To Know
When you go to a doctor, you initially have to complete and sign a plethora of forms. There are the checkboxes for all imaginable ailments and diseases, and you begin to realize “Yikes! There are so many things in me that can go wrong, it’s a miracle that I even can read this thing and…
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Life There’s No Such Thing As ‘Half-Jewish.’ It’s Simply ‘Jewish.’
As a child growing up in Philadelphia, when adults would ask me about my religion, I would answer, with a smile, “I’m nothing!” This resulted in a polite smile mixed with pity and bafflement. My Ukrainian Greek Catholic mother married a Jewish man, as did two of her four sisters. My mom may have married…
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Fast Forward Jewish Outreach Group Ramps Up Conversions In Africa, Latin America
The international Jewish outreach group Kulanu is trumpeting their 2017 accomplishments, including organizing more than 150 Jewish conversions in Africa and Latin America. “This year, Kulanu teams traveled to Nicaragua in July and Côte d’Ivoire in December to help people who had been preparing for years to convert to Judaism,” the New York-based group wrote…
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News Jewish Convert Explores Faith And Belonging Through Country Music
At the largest gathering of Reform Jews in the country earlier this month, Joe Buchanan stuck out in the crowd. Thousands of Jews had gathered in Boston for four days of worship and learning. But Buchanan was the only Jewish cowboy. In a black felted hat and a patterned handkerchief tied around his wrist, Buchanan,…
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News 3 Weddings In New York Synagogue. One Shared Act Of Defiance Against Israel’s Orthodox Rabbinate
Jewish weddings are typically joyous events during which a couple’s family and friends gather to celebrate and shower them with love as they create a new life together. But on Sunday, three Israeli Jewish couples will turn their party into a protest, and their intimate moment into a public, political act. Temple Emanu-El, the iconic…
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Fast Forward Federations Demands Israel Reverse ‘Divisive’ Moves On Western Wall And Conversion
LOS ANGELES (JTA) — The Jewish Federations of North America called on Israel to reverse its “divisive and damaging” steps to freeze an agreement on egalitarian prayer at the Western Wall and its support of a bill that would grant a monopoly to Orthodox authorities in Israel over conversions to Judaism. The JFNA’s board of…
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Community Who Gets To Judge The Converts?
The law “ואהבתם את הגר,” and you shall love the convert, is mentioned over 36 times in the Torah. The prolific rabbi Moshe Feinstein wrote that “As a matter of normative practice, one should know that the mitzvah (commandment) to love the convert obligates us to bring them closer and to be lenient on all…
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Community When Converts Are Commodities
If my Facebook feed is any guide, converts to Judaism are commodities, not human beings. In countless posts, and in real life too, born Jews of all stripes opine about — depending on their ideological outlook — whether particular converts have met proper conversion standards, or whether there should be any standards at all. Not…
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