I am a convert. 14 years ago I converted to Judaism.
Why is it that Jews today still fear the idea of talking about what is great about Judaism? What’s wrong of looking for and creating converts?
The local Jewish newspaper always has a couple of issues a year where the local temples can describe why you might want to come and visit. It is a great time to read the personality of each temple. It is also the time in which I get really irritated with the attitude of intermarried families.
Now this is not my diatribe on intermarried families. That is not of much interest to me. I will leave that to others.
Why is it that so many temples say that they are friendly to interfaith families, we accept interfaith families, we have programs for interfaith families? Huh? This is a Jewish temple. This is a spiritual community. The churches I belonged to did not cater to interfaith families. They worked hard on showing why their church was the one you should participate in. Why don’t synagogues do the same? Why isn’t each family member that is not Jewish not an opportunity? They do not have to convert but why not give them every reason to convert? Why not give classes aimed at the non-initiated )(Jew or not)? Why not invite them to Torah classes? Why not invite them into the sister/brotherhood? Why not ask them to do something that makes them feel part of the community? Why not introduce them to Jewish spirituality? It’s an opportunity not to be missed. We need a few more people for tikkun olam.
Ruth said,
June 26, 2008 at 8:40 am
You’re right that a lot of the non-Jewish partners in interfaith families may be interested in conversion to Judaism once they learn more about Judaism, but the first question is how to reach out to them to make them feel comfortable where they are. We just ran an article about this on our site. Judaism has a tradition of not proselytizing, and it would change our character if we suddenly started, you know, ringing the doorbells in the neighborhood. It would be hard to justify halachically, and culturally I think it would go against Jews’ own feelings of being harassed by proselytization.
But we are seeing that outreach to interfaith families works better than its opposite, as the studies coming out of Boston’s Jewish community are showing. We just have to figure out how to reach out while still remaining true to ourselves.
andrealudwig said,
June 29, 2008 at 11:25 pm
Hmmm… What if becoming Jewish actually results in no eternal spiritual fruit whatsoever? Please see my blog at http://www.phenomenaltruths.wordpress.com and click on “I am Not a Sinner!” or “How to Get to Heaven” concerning spirituality which God accepts and that which he does not.
Just trying to get you thinkin’…. =)
mTp said,
June 30, 2008 at 10:40 am
Andrea Ludwig is portraying the aspects of proselytizing that seems most abhorrent in the Jewish community – the pressure of making someone to feel inadequate or lesser than you by a particularistic and supercessionist ideology. Assuming that the faith another has is incorrect and wrong is very presumptuous of G-d’s intent.
I think that we can show people in the Jewish community who are not Jewish that there is something fantastic in the community, prayer, connection with G-d and the chance to do tikkun olam. This is not to say what they have is not adequate but much like with other things that I have in my life that I enjoy, I think inviting people in to participate and not treating them as “other” is a fantastic way to build community and to show a path to Judaism in that person’s life.
B’Shalom,
mTp