THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS

Friday, May 24, 1985

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LOCAL NEWS

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City Heat
Karate Kid
Skin Game
Dune

Shavuot Carries Special
Significance For Converts

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BY SIMON GRIVER

Special to The Jewish News

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OLDIES BUT GOODIES

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Jerusalem — Judaism, unlike
most religions, has never featured
the missionary zeal for seeking
converts. Nevertheless, there has
always been a steady trickle of in-
dividuals who desire to become
Jewish, and these proselytes have
always been welcomed into the
fold with open arms.
Ruth, the Moabite girl who con-
verted to Judaism is recalled at
Shavuot through the reading of
the megilla. Consequently, this
festival has become associated
with those gentiles who have cho-
sen to throw their lot in with the
Jewish people.
Rabbi Avishai Doum, head of
the Jewish Agency's conversion
Ulpanim stresses that the prose-
lyte is a fully fledged Jew who
must if anything be respected
more than somebody who is born a
Jew. This is especially true in
modern times when such a large
percentage of Jews are completely
ignorant of their heritage.
"We convert about 300 people
each year," says Rabbi Doum.
"And in total in all of Israel I es-
timate that some 400 gentiles be-
come Jews each year. About 70
percent of the converts are women
and maybe two-thirds of these
women seek conversion because
they intend marrying a Jewish
boy."
Indeed, Ruth herself converted
to Judaism so that she could
marry a Jew. Typical of such a
modern day Ruth is Osnat Ben
Zacharia, who completed her con-
version in August 1981 and mar-
ried her husband Yosef, a captain
in the Israel Defense Force the fol-
lowing month. She was born as
Jane Hubble in Birmingham,
England and first visited Israel in
1978, spending a spell as a volun-
teer on Kibbutz Nirim.
"Israel had always held a fasci-
nation for me," explains Osnat.
"My maternal grandfather was
Jewish and my mother had al-
ways worked with Jews in Lon-
don. When we learned about the
various religions in school I was
especially interested in Judaism.
Then the Yom Kippur War in-
creased my sympathy for Israel."
Osnat went home to Birming-
ham, but finding it difficult to
land a job and missing Israel, she
decided to return in 1979. On her
second day back in Israel she met
her husband-to-be on the
Jerusalem-Tel Aviv bus. Once
they had decided that they
wanted to marry, Osnat chose to
convert.
It took Osnat 20 months to be-
come a "Jew By Choice" and she
had to make seven appearances
before the Beth Din before they
approved her conversion. "I was
determined to go through with it,"
she recalls. "I think the Rabbinate
are far more suspicious of poten-
tial converts who have Jewish
boyfriends. Others on my course
who wanted to convert for the
sake of converting passed through
much more quickly."

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Osnat now describes herself as
traditional rather than orthodox,
though of course her conversion
was an orthodox one.

c3

Ruth: From Biblical character to
contemporary symbol.

"I believe that the Jewish
people are all one family," she
says, "and that it is how we are
inside that counts, rather than
our outside religious deeds. This
was an opinion that I vented
many times to the rabbis during
my conversion course."

The conversion courses
encompass the full range of
mitzvot that a Jew must perform.
Other reasons cited by Rabbi
Doublor the desire to convert to
Judaism are a love of Israel and a
high sense of self-awareness indi-
cating that Judaism is a path
worth taking.
Ariel Ivri who grew up near
Zurich, Switzerland falls into this
category. "I had lived in many
countries like Canada and
Greece," he says, "but I felt most
comfortable in Israel. I liked the
people and the lifestyle. Having
decided that I was going to become
Israeli, I felt that to do that prop-
erly and really become one of the
people I need to convert to
Judaism."
Ariel is now a psychology
undergraduate at the Hebrew
University. His parents do not
fully understand the step he took
but are prepared to accept it if it
makes him happy.
Osnat, who now has two chil-
dren, and works for Bank Leumi
is in a similar situation.
Rabbi Doum reports that many
who apply for conversion are re-
jected, either because it is not
something that they seem to be
taking seriously enough, or be-
cause it is felt that they are not so
much attracted to Judaism as
running away from something
else. Rabbi Doum estimates that
95 percent of those who convert to
Judaism in Israel remain in Is-
rael. Like Ruth the Moabite, who
after being widowed came with
her mother-in-law Naomi to Eretz
Israel where she married her hus-
band's kinsman Boaz, these mod-
ern converts have also made their
home in Israel.

World Zionist Press Service

