Too Many Converts? A Drash for Saturday, 1 March 2014

Most Jews today would say the following of Judaism.  It’s not a proselytizing religion, but we do accept converts.  What we mean when we say that, is that we do not seek for people to convert to Judaism.  But we accept those who come to our door.  And that is largely an accurate statement. 

We Jews don’t ‘corner’ our non-Jewish friends and twist their arms to consider joining us.  This, in contrast to the way that some of our neighbours behave.  With Jews, it’s more often quite the opposite.  Many Jews, fielding an enquiry about becoming a Jew from a friend, would instinctively respond in a discouraging tone.  You want to become Jewish??!  Whatever for??!  Of course, there’s an exception to every rule.  Every now and then you’ll meet a Jew who will share the Jewish message in an almost evangelical manner.  But most of us fit between the two extremes:  welcoming but not working to convince.

We accept converts, and this room is proof of that.  Many of you in this room tonight have chosen Judaism after being raised in another faith or no faith at all.  Or, you are in the process of embracing and adopting Judaism.  And we have accepted you.  And that acceptance is nowadays the norm.  Just the other day, I received an e-mail from someone interested in conversion.  He began the process several years back, whilst living in Sydney, with one of my colleagues there.  After an exchange of a few e-mails, he remarked:  “I am always amazed at the welcome I have encountered in the Jewish community!”

That said, some Jews are not entirely accepting.  Some of us, even though we know we’re not supposed to, differentiate between Jews by Choice and Jews by Birth.  We may say admiringly that Jews by Choice tend to be more devoted, because that is an incontrovertible observation.  Logically, one would think that such admiration would lead us to greater devotion ourselves.  And yet I still hear disparaging comments about converts from time to time.  I understand that just last week, one week ago last night, someone in this congregation, whilst in this building in front of a considerable number of people, made a comment about converts that dripped with contempt and sarcasm.  And as far as I know, nobody rebuked him for it.  So we can celebrate our welcoming culture.  But we must acknowledge that we’re not, by any means, perfect.

In our age, there has been an explosion of interest in conversion to Judaism.  Right now in our congregation, I have seven candidates who have submitted paperwork and are formally in the process.  Most of them should be finishing their conversions by this winter.  I also have 15 more students whom you see regularly in shule.  They are all attending class but have not yet made their intent official.  They are still, so to speak, ‘testing the waters.’

That’s 22 people all told, and it’s incredible.  Others have enquired, but have not yet made the jump to actively pursuing conversion.  There are still others whom I’ve had to discourage, usually because of geography.  They simply live too far from us to be able to attend regularly enough for me to consider them as viable candidates for conversion.  I’ve had expressions of interest from as far away as Roma – Queensland, that is, not Italia.

I was recently asked if this veritable explosion of converts calls into question the authenticity of our congregation.  Because it was a serious and well-meaning, question, I gave it a serious answer.  Because I think that many of you – Jews by Birth and Choice alike – would be interested in my answer, I’ll repeat it for you now.

As I said, Jews by choice, or Converts, are known for their relative religious zeal.  Because religious faith, practice and knowledge are their only way in, they do have a tendency to take them more serious than Jews by Birth,  Our Jews by Choice tend to attend services more frequently, and pray with more fervor, than our members who were born into the faith.  They are much more likely to be enrolled in my Hebrew reading classes.  They are much more likely to spend time studying the weekly Parashah or Mishnah.  They add an important dimension to our congregation with their seriousness of purpose.

What they don’t bring is an automatic connection with ‘Jewishness’ beyond religion.  They have no Jewish memories other than recent ones.  They don’t have recipes for kneidlach.  They might not even know what kneidlach are!  Or kreplach.  And what’s a schnoorer?

So the little code-words and phrases of Jewish life have to be taught.  And because of a lack of Jewish memory, some of them don’t compute.  But here’s a bottom line.  Without a steady flow of Jews by Choice, there would be no future for Judaism.  We would be as good as gone in a couple of generations from now.  Certainly Progressive Judaism would be.  Judaism would be one-dimensional.  And in truth Orthodox Judaism would only be a few generations behind.  We Jews do not make enough babies to replace ourselves.  And most of those babies are growing up to have a tenuous connection at best to Judaism.  All of you in this room who are born Jews:  do your grown children connect in a meaningful way to Jewish life?  I didn’t think so.  The sad truth is that only a very few in our congregation could answer that question positively.  And what about grandchildren?  For those so blessed, probably even fewer of your grown grandchildren have anything to do with Judaism, or any meaningful degree of Jewish connection.  I’m not pointing this out to shame, rebuke, or criticise you.  Only to point out the sad truth.

That’s not to say that these un-engaged grown children and grandchildren will not, at some point in their lives, find themselves at the door to the synagogue wanting to go in for whatever reason.  But if they did, and we had not constantly renewed our ranks with Jews by Choice, the synagogue would likely not even be open for them.  Or, it would be a pathetic and emaciated group.  But we do accept – and embrace – converts.  Therefore, if your grandchildren one day decide to wander in, they will find a vibrant, alive group of engaged adults of all ages.  The surnames of the people will sound different.

These engaged adult Jews – many or most of them Jews by Choice – will have brought a new feel to the synagogue.  And so what?  Is Judaism all about gefilte fish?  Or is it about coming enthusiastically to the synagogue to pray, worship, and study?  To know and love the Torah?  To be a ‘light unto the nations’?  To be witnesses that there is one God of all humanity, and He has expectations of us?  Of course, it’s about these latter things.  And to the extent that our Jews by Choice remind us of what’s important, we need to cherish them.  And when they, through their actions, remind us of values that are the foundation of Judaism, we should emulate them.  Not suggest, sarcastically, that they should be ‘re-programmed.’  Any of us who think that, could use a little ‘re-programming’ ourselves.  Class is on Tuesdays at seven; see you there. 

Too many converts?  Hell, bring me more!  Shabbat shalom.