In “How to convert a crisis: Say ‘dayenu’”, Shammai Engelmayer does a pretty good job of summing up the current conversion crisis. At LimmudNY, Seth Farber, head of ITIM, did him one better.
I sat in on one of Farber’s LimmudNY session, “Conversion Chaos.” This is how the session was billed: “Since 2004, conversion to Judaism has increasingly been in the headlines. In 2008, a rabbinic court in Israel invalidated 40,000 orthodox conversions. This session will map out what has happened and analyze what may happen in the coming months.” Farber led the session by laying out a dizzying array of information and anecdotes with an infectious enthusiasm that belied the dark thunder cloud raining over conversion in Israel.
In the end, I’d heard most of the story before. Conversion in Israel is out of control. Farber’s on the front lines trying to do something about. Orthodox converts (prospective and those already dipped in the mikveh) in the United States and Israel are running scared, either towards their rabbis or away from Judaism.
It was the only session at LimmudNY that made me cry even after Farber sat down with me privately and assured me that my conversion was okay…for now. I can’t help but feel pain for all the converts this chaos has hurt. I can’t help but make that pain my own. I can’t help thinking that converts are the wreckage, the massacred thousands, on the battlefield of an ongoing war between rabbis.
Memoirs of a Jewminicana 
Well I can’t say I know you feel, I can’t even imagine how it is to be a Jew knowing that one day it might be overturned by some over zealous Rabbis. But let me tell you, it pains me deeply.This whole situation is leading me away from conversion. I’ve been studying for conversion, learning Hebrew to hopefully convert in Israel, but with this mess? Who needs this kind of drama? Thankfully I’m still young, just 22, maybe I’ll wait a bit longer to see if this mess in Israel gets fixed. Until then we can only hope for the best.
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Honestly, the entire mess was one of many reasons why I went with an non orthodox beit din. (That, and the role of women in the rabbinate, among others, but that’s a whole ‘nother discussion)Honestly, my BIL is planning on getting married, and is in the fun no man’s land of his mother’s (of blessed memory, my dh’s stepmother) conversion probably not being acceptable. We have a man in his mid 20s who has grown in in Conservadox shuls, kosher home, etc who beginning to face what I had been screaming about when we were discussing the munchkin’s dip. My dh is “lucky” in that he has the right “pedigree”, and if he wants to hop on a plane tomorrow and make Israel his home, he can, as can his sister, but his brother, myself, and the munckin are SOL. Sigh. Thankfully, I have no interest in making aliyah. I sound awfully bitter, but really, it’s more for people like BIL and others who are punished for absolutely nothing. Sigh.
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RubyV, it might be easier for you to get into Israel with your conversion than with mine! Trust me. I’m sorry for your BIL’s trouble. Conversion has never been a tame subject for the Jewish people.Alberto, don’t lose hope. I’m sure your bashert is waiting for you somewhere, don’t let the Israeli rabbinate get in the way of love. 😉 Good luck!
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