Embracing Converts: A Policy Proposal

...There is just no way that we rabbis can possibly give adequate training to all the converts who come to us each year, and still fulfill our other responsibilities...

...Does one really have to be a rabbi in order to know or do or teach these things...

...If we mean that when we say it, if we are serious each day when we say that this is Cod's concern, then it has to be our concern too...

...Can they be taught in less time...

...For the converts' sake, for our people's sake, for God's sake, and for our own sakes, I issue this challenge to you: Will you join your rabbis in this task...

...In the ancient Near East, people believed that a nation and its god were intertwined, that if you did not belong to that tribe you could not belong to that god...

...Am I naive in believing that there are people in our midst who have Jewish homes—by whatever reasonable criteria we define that term—who would be willing to open their homes for a Shabbat meal or for a Seder to one who wants to learn how to be Jewish...

...A number of things: helping them learn their way around the synagogue service, helping them learn how to read Hebrew and helping them learn the whys and hows of Jewish living...

...And therefore I issue this challenge: I issue it for the converts' sake for they are many and they do need our support...

...They will tell me that this is a "religious" issue and that they are a "secular" or a "non-sectarian" agency and so they cannot get involved...

...I have a hunch that in the process of teaching, the teachers would learn, that they would derive new insight and new information and new appreciation of this heritage of ours that we tend to take so much for granted...

...Jack Riemer is rabbi of Congregation Beth El of La Jolla, California...

...I don't think it could be any clearer than that...

...Judaism introduced to the world the concept that God was the God of the whole world and therefore one could choose, if one wished, to become a Jew...

...They may think that if you are not a rabbi you are not expected to do these things...

...For the Jewish community's sake, for these people represent an enormously valuable potential source of strength...

...Am I naive in believing that there are untapped resources of talent and concern within our community...

...Until the advent of Judaism, people believed that the world was divided into two groups: natives and barbarians...

...1 cannot go to the Federation, at least not in most communities, for if I do, they will tell me that there is a "separation of synagogue and state" within the Jewish community...

...I can take it to the synagogue board and try to put it on the agenda there, but if I do, most boards would probably rule it out of order...

...I hope you will...

...If the Jewish community is at all serious about helping these people, about preparing these people, then it cannot leave it all for the rabbi to do if he can, when he can, as best he can, in between his many other duties...

...One of these days the organized Jewish community is going to have to face up to the fact that its task is not only to save Jews but to save Judaism—but right now, it seems that the Federation does not want to, or does not know how to, deal with my question...

...But concerning converts we are commanded to love, the very word that the Torah uses in relation to God...

...B'nai mitzvah come to us with several years of previous study in Hebrew School, and yet each child requires half a year of training...

...Now, quite often when Jews intermarry—and even when no intermarriage is involved— non-Jews come to us and ask about how to become Jews...

...What is involved in teaching converts...

...Will you join your hands and hearts with ours...

...we say it so often, yet we so seldom stop to think about it...

...They want to say that either you are born a Jew or else you can never become a Jew, even though this is the very opposite of what Judaism teaches...

...And yet at least that many people, sometimes more, come to us for conversion every year...

...His newest book, A Treasury of Modern Jewish Ethical Wills, will be published by Schocken Books next spring...

...And yet I think it is the synagogue's responsibility, and the community's responsibility, and not just mine...

...Maimonides wrote back: "Tell your teacher that I said he owes you an apology...

...Converts come to us with a need nbt only for information, but also for counselling and support, for advice and guidance...

...A person who leaves his own community, and through the understanding of his heart comes to join ours, even though it is a persecuted people, who acknowledges that the Torah is true and just, a person who comes under the wings of the Shechinah voluntarily, is surely a child of Abraham, and whoever maligns him commits a great sin...

...Where then should I go with my question of how to respond to the many who wish to enter our ranks...

...Maimonides put it very clearly and simply...

...This chevrah is one of eight groups at Beth El set up to aid those in the community who are in need of special support...

...Others can sit beside the convert in synagogue and show him or her which is the "blue book" and which is the "black book" and what the difference between them is...

...They think that religious matters like conversions are a rabbi's responsibility, not theirs...

...Many of them have already become leaders and teachers of Jewish life, and many more could if we only gave them time and love and attention enough...

...Judaism introduced the idea that one did not have to convert— that one could be a good person in God's eyes whether or not one converted—but that conversion was possible for those who came to Judaism with a whole heart and a true desire...

...Converts come to us with no previous training at all...

...The prayerbook describes God in these words: "Adonay shomer et gerim"—"The Lord cares about the convert...

...The concept of conversion is one of Judaism's major contributions to the history of civilization...

...And we have not hired even one person to prepare them...

...This article is a based on the speech that launched Congregation Beth El's Chevrah L'chizuk Gerim—Support System for Helping Converts...

...For God Himself loves the ger (convert...

...He must have been drunk to have forgotten that in 36 places the Torah tells us to be careful of the honor due to the convert, that in 36 places it says: 'Thou shalt love the convert.' "Know that the obligation that the Torah has given us concerning converts is greater than the obligation towards a parent or a prophet...

...And I think if is important that they meet with and get to know other Jews, beside rabbis, who can serve as Jewish role models, for otherwise they may think that only rabbis live Jewish lives—that only rabbis and their families light candles, or make Kiddush, or keep kosher, or celebrate holidays, or read Jewish books, or get involved in Jewish causes...

...For Judaism invented the concept of conversion...

...It is a new question...

...A generation ago, if Jews intermarried they dropped out of Jewish life...

...There is a phrase that we say every day in our prayers...

...Will you tithe, for once, not only of your money, but also of your time and your talent and your self...

...Does it really make sense that if I need a gymnasium the organized Jewish community is set up to meet my need but if I need a mikveh it is not?-Does it really make sense that if a non-Jew libels me the organized Jewish community is set up to respond but if a non-Jew wants to join me the organized Jewish community is not...

...Other people, beside rabbis, know how to read Hebrew and how to help someone else learn how to read Hebrew...

...I feel this way for two reasons, one practical and the other spiritual...

...So: Am I naive in believing that there are people in our midst who know how to read Hebrew, and who, with a little bit of training, could teach someone else how to read it too...

...To whom, then, should I take it...

...In our synagogue we have approximately 45 b'nai and b'not mitzvah a year...

...Converts come needing help not only for themselves but also for their Jewish partners, and for their parents, and for the parents of their spouses...

...Concerning prophets we are only commanded to obey...

...Some people want to respond with bigotry...

...I don't think I am naive...

...For God's sake, for this is what the Siddur says He cares about...

...And tell him that I said he should fast and pray and ask God's forgiveness for what he said to you...

...This is a real question, not a hypothetical one...

...Am I naive in believing that there are people in our midst who would be willing to take responsibility for being a friend, a guide, a model and a partner—not to many converts, for that would be unreasonable—but to one...

...What a convert needs above all is a role model and a friend who will offer a hand and an ear and be a support in all the long bewildering period of studying and struggling and striving that goes into becoming a Jew...

...Am I naive in believing that our people are waiting to be called upon, for once not for money but for themselves, their minds and their hearts, their time and their talent...

...And for our own sakes too, for by doing a mitzvah that makes a difference in the life of another human being and in the life of our people, we will enrich and add to the quality of our own lives...

...The congregation understands that no one teacher could possibly prepare 45 children for bar mitzvah by him or herself and so we hire three teachers...

...The truth of the matter is that anyone who says that Judaism's gates are closed libels the Torah and misrepresents our faith...

...The practical reason is that I simply cannot do it properly by myself...

...A convert once asked him what he should do about a certain teacher who told him that he had no right to use the words, "Our God and the God of our fathers" in his prayers, since his father was not a Jew...

...But there is a second, more important reason—a spiritual one—for making the training of converts the shared task of all of us and not the responsibility of the rabbi alone...

...I trust you will...

...There is no week in which I (and every other rabbi) do not get at least two or three or four calls from people inquiring about how or whether they can enter the ranks of the Jewish people...

...I think this is a short-sighted view of what a Federation is...

...Boards are equipped to deal with things like budgets and deficits, projects and payrolls...

...How should we respond...

...Concerning parents we are only commanded by the Torah to honor and revere...