Joining the Jewish People’s Fate and Faith Today

Elliot Cosgrove, a Conservative rabbi and the author of a book “For Such a Time as This: On Being Jewish Today,” told me that since October 7th he’s seen engagement from “within and beyond the boundaries of the conventional Jewish community” at a level he’s never before witnessed. This has included increased synagogue membership, expanded enrollment in Hebrew-school programs, full houses at Shabbat services—and oversubscribed courses for people interested in becoming Jewish.

Deb Kroll, a woman in her early seventies, grew up in the Bible Belt with parents who became Pentecostal leaders, but when she was a child her Christian grandmother told stories of her family fleeing at night from a county where the Ku Klux Klan was active, soon after the lynching of Leo Frank. Kroll remembers thinking, I’m a little Jewish girl who’s been born into the wrong family.

For most of her life, she didn’t realize that it was even possible to convert to Judaism. Then, in recent years, Kroll said, DNA testing of relatives suggested that she had significant Jewish ancestry on both sides. She was studying in a program online from her home in Georgia, when the events of October 7th occurred. “I thought, Well, I’m not going to stop my Jewish journey out of fear,” she recalled, adding, “I throw in my lot with the Jewish people.”

As a Reform Rabbi I would add that this desire to become Jewish, or become more Jewish, in a time or place of danger is due to hope which is not just a feeling or an emotion, but also a virtue and a Mitzvah. Hope that goes back to the Exodus when non-Jews (a mixed multitude) joined those Jews who were leaving Egypt. Exodus 12:38-39 states: “And a mixed multitude went up with them the Hebrews)”. The term “Mixed Multitude” refers to a diverse group of people who accompanied the Hebrews-Israelites during the Exodus from Egypt.

A survey of over 35,000 Americans in 2008 found that most Americans agree with the statement: many religions – not just their own – can lead to eternal life. Among those affiliated with some  religious tradition, seven-in-ten say many religions can lead to eternal life. Just recently the Pope declared that all religions lead to God.

This view is shared by a majority of adherents in nearly all religious traditions, including 82% of Jews, 79% of Catholics, 57% of evangelical Protestants and 56% of Muslims. (From the U.S. Religious Landscape Survey, Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life, 2008, Pew Research Center.)

In the UK the Liberal Jewish movement is experiencing a surge in conversions to Judaism with community leaders saying the pandemic has made people reflect more on faith. Some of the new applicants are motivated by traditional reasons, such as a Jewish partner. But many have little previous Jewish connection. Liberal Judaism reports that 139 people registered to go through its conversion process last year. The number is double the 2019 total of 70, and a significant rise on the 93 registering in 2020. About half had some Jewish ancestry, half no previous connection at all.  The Miller Intro to Judaism program now has over 800 students.

Thus, in the 21st century United States most Christians, Jews, and Muslims have rejected the ‘only one truth’ religious mind set and believe in the Qur’an’s pluralism teachings: “For every one of you did We appoint a law and a way. If Allah had wanted, He could have made you one people, but (He didn’t) that He might test you in what He gave you. Therefore compete with one another to hasten to do virtuous deeds; for all return to Allah (for judgement), so He will let you know [about] that in which you differed.” [5:48]

According to a 2020 Pew Research Center survey, American Jews are becoming more diverse, especially among younger Jewish generations. Compared to 8% of all Jewish adults, 15% of those ages 18 to 29 identified with a nonwhite category.

Most of these non-white Jews are converts to Judaism; and according to a very recent PhD thesis survey of 55 converts in the Los Angeles area by Dr. Stephanie Cubba (one third of the converts converted in 2023) 7% were African American and 16% were Latinx.

Previous to becoming Jewish 10% were agnostic or atheist, 26% were spiritual but not religious, 25% were Catholic, and 39% were various types of Protestants.

Now as Jews 35% keep kosher at home, and 76% are members of a synagogue.

When asked about their motivations for formally converting 67% said that they were seeking a religion with room for questioning, and 25% answered that they had discovered their Jewish Ancestry through genetic analysis.

In the Biblical Book of Esther 8:17 we are told that “… Many of the people of the land Jewified (or Judieized) themselves, for the awe of the God of the Jews had fallen upon them.” The verb מִתְיַהֲדִים, which means they made themselves Jews, or in modern terms converted, and rendered literally as “Jewified” is strange. The traditional understanding, following both of the Aramaic translation Targums, is מִתְגַיְירִין, “converted”; the Greek translation goes so far as to translate the verb as “became circumcised”.

Thus they start behaving like Jews, and this behavior would show the Jews and their supporters that they were “one of them.” This is one of the reasons that many men who have Jewish wives and children decide to formally become Jews during a time of danger.

Dearer to God are the converts to Judaism who have come of their own accord than all the crowds of Israel who stood at Mt Sinai. The Israelites witnessed special effects; thunder, lightning, quaking mountains and the sound of trumpets. But the converts to Judaism, who saw not one of these things, come to God and take on the yoke of heaven. Can anyone be dearer to God than these people? (Midrash Tankhuma Lekh Lekha 6)

Some people need years of Jewish living to become fully merged into the Jewish community; others fit in right away, because they are not converting, their souls are simply returning home.

For example, three decades ago I met a recent Russian immigrant who had started an introduction to Judaism class in Boston. She had to leave the class to move to L.A. with her husband for his new job. She was six months pregnant and wanted to be Jewish before the baby was born because she was the child of a mixed marriage in the Soviet Union, and she did not want her child to have a similar experience.

She told me that at age 18 everyone in the USSR had to get an identity card. Since her father was Jewish, and her mother was Russian, the government official told her she could pick either one for her identity card, but she could not change it once it was issued. She said she wanted her identity card to read: Jewish.

The official, and then his boss, spent over a half an hour arguing with her that this was a very bad decision. She insisted and it was done. When I heard that story, I told her that in my eyes she had already become Jewish by that act alone. I was ready to convert her next month. I did. And I was at the circumcision of her son two months later. The family joined my congregation, and were members for several years, until they moved to another part of town.

As the Midrash teaches, “When a person wants to become part of the Jewish people, we must receive him or her with open hands so as to bring that person under the wings of the Divine Presence” (Leviticus Rabbah 2:9).