One of the small bright spots in the horrors of recent months is that my Israel advocacy has brought me into contact with Jews I otherwise might never have met. Living as I do in my Israeli religious bubble, it's easy to forget that the Jewish world is anything but homogeneous. Every day I am in contact with Jews who are nothing like me, and I like to think that I'm all the better for it.
There are Jews from all walks of life who I might never have come across in ordinary circumstances. But however different we are, we have all been brought together, all of us united, by our love for the land of Israel and the Jewish people. I have been privileged to meet extraordinary men and women who put themselves on the front line defending the Jewish state. Individuals who have devoted themselves to the truth, oftentimes at great personal cost. They have lost jobs, friends, and even family for standing up for what is right. Truly they would be called a credit to the Jewish people.
Sadly, a good many of them are not actually Jewish, although they sincerely believe that they are. And for the most part, they have no reason not to. They enroll in an official-looking program, complete with prescribed courses and an impressive curriculum, all done under the auspices of “rabbis” whose legitimacy they have no reason to question. They join in celebrating select holidays, do a Shabbat or two, and in some cases, they might make real changes in how they live their lives. It all culminates in a formal ritual. There might or might not be circumcision and or a mikvah, but there is probably a great deal of pomp and ceremony.
And then according to the temple membership list, they are considered Jewish. The problem is that they are still not considered Jewish according to halakha. Halakha is authentic Jewish law. Besides the law itself, it refers to the system of how these laws are derived and of the authority of those who make the laws, collectively known as the passing-down of Judaism, the mesorah.
Their nonconformity doesn't present an issue for other Jewish denominations, such as the Reform and Conservative movements. They have either directly or indirectly rejected halakha both in theory and in practice.
The Reform movement openly rejects the divinity and authority of halakha from the onset. In their place they immediately invented an entirely new set of rules for themselves. These rules, however meaningful to the participants, are by definition created outside the Jewish structure that they rejected.
The Conservative movement is less obvious. They claim that they accept halakha. However, while they acknowledged its validity, they then created an entirely new system of how these laws were to be understood. They dismissed the legal interpretations and codifications as they were passed down over more than three millenniums. However, Halakha refers not only to Jewish law itself but to the Jewish process of how these laws are derived. In essence, they created a new mesorah for themselves. They rejected the authority of all the rabbis and sages before them and put themselves as the singular arbitrators. The practical result of creating an entirely new system is that the Conservative movement was able to decide anything they wanted, usually based on whatever was in vogue, and then retroactively change the halakha to support it. The outcome is the Conservative moment makes the same new decisions as the Reform and is now hardly distinguishable from it.
The clergy of the Reform and Conservative will be quick to dismiss such concerns. They will claim that the entire thing is a matter of politics, is academic or a matter of differing opinions. And their conversion system reflects that.
Yet nothing could be further from the truth. The question of what makes a convert touches on the very core of what it means to be a Jew.
(Setting aside Kabbalah and Chassidut) The fundamental distinction between a Jew and a gentile is that the Jewish people have the Torah and Gentiles do not. At Mt. Sinai, the Jewish people as a whole accepted upon themselves the Torah, meaning that they accepted adhering to the 613 mitzvot contained therein. It’s for this reason that the only logical way for one to join the Jewish people is to take this obligation onto one's self.
Neither the Reform nor the Conservative movements require the full acceptance of the mitzvot as a prerequisite for conversion. They might teach a little about them. They might even encourage some version of keeping them (usually in a way that feels "meaningful" to the individual.) But the reality is that neither movement made joining the Jewish people conditional on this acceptance.
So, the question is: if there is no acceptance of the mitzvot, then in what way, shape, or form has the potential convert become different from a non-Jew?
The tragedy is that often potential converts don’t even know that they are being lied to. That they will still not be considered Jewish by observant Jews. From their perspective, everything looks completely authentic. At that early stage, they don’t have the knowledge to question that anything could possibly be wrong. Such converts don’t understand that their conversion amounted to nothing.
I’ll offer an example from my own life. One of the most frequent and irritating stereotypes I have had to endure since I became disabled is the notion that since I have to push myself in my wheelchair, my arms must be incredibly strong. Indeed, when I'm seen dragging myself home from shul on Shabbat, it's almost always the first comment made. Unfortunately, it doesn't work that way. Wheelchairs are not designed to give their users a good workout. The motions used to push a chair are not motions that lead to muscle growth. No matter how hard I push, it will never work the muscles the way that's needed. In the end, I am tiring myself out with any positive benefit to my muscles.
Likewise, the would-be convert suffers all the consequences of being Jewish in an antisemitic world, without reaping the real benefits. This isn't to say that there is no reward for what they are doing. They are sure to be numbered among the righteous among the nations. But that is hardly comfort or compensation for people who would willingly give themselves over to the Jewish world. These individuals want and deserve to be rewarded for their efforts by being given a chance to be part of the Jewish people they love so much.
Admittedly, a good many of these people choose to live lifestyles that, for whatever reason, go against the Torah. For people like these, the alternative movements provide a vbway to re-channel them away from the Jewish world into a home where they would be more comfortable. To them, I would only say that they need to remember that when you are becoming a Jew, you are changing your life to fit Hashem, not expecting Hashem to change to fit your life.
But many, many of these people are sincere. They truly believe and would be willing to do what's required of them. They are yearning for a spiritual connection and earnestly striving to be part of our nation. Yet they are misled and are actually hindered from joining our people.
They may spend their entire lives not knowing. Many find out years, even decades later and are justifiably outraged that they were willfully misled by the clergy they placed their trust in. When they do learn, they are faced with the daunting challenge of starting fresh.
It gets even worse as time goes by. When they want to get married but are turned away by the rabbi. Or worse, a generation later, when they have children, these young people discover that despite how they were raised, they are still gentiles. I have met many people who experienced this. The shock of suddenly finding out that you're not who you thought you were is traumatic.
These deceived converts will be consoled by well-meaning individuals with such platitudes as "You're Jewish to me." And "You're a Jew, full stop." It's sweet, but unfortunately for the would-be convert, Jewish law is not decided by a friend's feelings or by an encouraging post on the internet.
It may seem cruel or exclusionary to rebuff these would-be Jews after so much effort on their part. But every people has the right to decide the criteria for membership. And at a bare minimum, you cannot expect to join a nation unless you are willing to abide by its laws. For the Jewish nation, Torah is our law.
And present, there are thousands of Gentiles who are convinced that they’re Jews. It’s a situation that needs to be remedied, as much for them as for the cohesiveness of the Jewish people.
It’s highly unlikely that the movements themselves will ever change their practices. They need the constant influx of new converts to fill their dwindling ranks. And to fill their diminished coffers. For the Conservative and Reform movements, conversion has become a profitable industry. For many places it is one of their primary sources of revenue. Collecting souls is a business, and business is booming.
Many have argued that nothing needs to be done. Jews don’t seek out converts. In most cases, we go so far as to discourage them. We are not looking to missionize. So, why should we care if someone’s conversion is kosher or not? Why say anything to them?
The answer comes from meeting these would-be gerim. So many of the people that I have met have a genuine love for the Jewish people. More often than not they've had to sacrifice a lot for this love. Being a Jew is more dangerous than it has been in a long time. The threats of antisemitism are genuine, numerous, and deadly. Most have lost things that we important to them. They have seen people they cared for turn against them, and have faced the ugliness of Jew hatred firsthand.
These are people who would proudly stand up and proclaim their Jewishness. Knowing that in doing so, they risk isolation, persecution, and even their own safety. Haven’t they earned the right to the truth?
Besides, I would go so far as to suggest that we have a certain obligation to the people who want to be our allies. An obligation that began the moment we accepted their help. I would argue that we owe them the truth if we allow them to stand in alongside us in other ways.
These potential converts were robbed. Through no fault of their own, they were led off the proper path and left in a spiritual limbo. They want to be Jewish. Instead, the best they can hope for is to be viewed as Jew-ish.
Like a “kosher style” deli.
The truth is that there is no gray area. One is either a Jew or one is not. There are no half-Jews, no spectrum. And being part of a Jewish community, however welcoming, will never be the same as being a part of the Jewish people.
And that is heartbreaking. Such would-be converts have proven that they want to stand by us if given the choice. It seems only right that they be given accurate facts about what the choice really entails. These people have given their hearts and souls to the Jewish people. The Jewish People must give them back the truth.
Ilan Goodmanis a museum collections professional and exhibition curator. He also serves as a rabbi and educator. He made Aliyah to Israel in 2011 and lives with his wife and children in Beit Shemesh.