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Promoting Conversion

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A proposal to reach out for converts revives
a decades-old Jewish debate.

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JULIA GOLDMAN
Jewish Telegraphic Agency

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8/27

1999

96 Detroit Jewish News

ary Tobin wants American
Jews to put out the welcome
mat to would-be converts.
Reviving a decades-old
debate over how to build a vibrant
and populous Jewish community, the
prominent demographer and frequent
consultant to major Jewish organiza-
tions is proposing the creation of a
conversion initiative aimed at, but not
limited to, the non-Jewish spouses and
children of mixed marriages and peo-
ple with some Jewish heritage.
According to the proposal laid out
in Tobin's new book, Opening the

Gates: How Proactive Conversion Can
Revitalize the Jewish Community

where near 50 percent, the question
has become particularly urgent.
"Since 1945, the American popula-
tion has doubled, but the Jewish pop-
ulation in the United States has
))
remained the same — at about 5.5
million — said Rabbi Ephraim
Buchwald, the director of the National
Jewish Outreach Program, which pro-
motes national Jewish education and
communal celebrations.
Due to a low Jewish birthrate and
assimilation, in just two genera-
tions, two out of every three Jews
will disappear," Buchwald warned at
the conference.
"Our children are drowning," he
said, comparing the Jewish communi-
ty to a sinking ship.
But he balked at the suggestion that
),
we throw a life preserver to the gentiles.
Given these circumstances, he said,
"it is immoral to expend Jewish
resources trying to convince a gentile
to put on a yarmulke."
John Ruskay, chief operating officer of
UJA-Federation of New York, also advo-
cated fortifying Judaism from within.
Communal resources should be
funneled to strengthening the Jewish
infrastructure, enriching formal and
informal education for Jewish youth,
engaging the best and the brightest"
as Jewish professionals and trans-
forming "collective spaces" — syna-
gogues, community centers and

(Jossey-Bass Publishers; $25), the effort
to bring in millions of new Jews from
all religious and ethnic backgrounds
would force the Jewish community as
a whole to examine, expand and fortify
all elements of the culture," from edu-
cation to ritual practice.
Proactive conversion is "not a magic
bullet to save Judaism," but part of an
overall strategy to strengthen the
Jewish community," Tobin said at a
conference he convened recently in
New York to introduce his idea.
"If Judaism institutionally, commu-
nally [and] ideologically is strong and
powerful, others will choose to join.
The question is: Are we prepared to
let them?"
For decades American
Jews have been wrestling
with this very question,
with strong advocates
on both sides of the
• About 50 percent of Jews are marrying
debate. While
non-Jews since 1990, up from virtually zero
some propose
in the 1950s.
reaching out to
• Conversions to Judaism have tripled since the
unaffiliated
1970s. Even with no changes in the degree to which
Jews and to
the
Jewish community encourages conversion, Jews-
non-Jews, oth-
by-choice
are expected to form between 7-10 percent
ers, while not
of the Jewish population in another decade.
against such
• More than 200,000 Jews-by-choice (converts)
efforts, think
are in America today.
the focus — and
resources —
— From "Opening the Gates:
should be
How
Proactive Conversion Can
"inreach" to already
Revitalize the Jewish
committed Jews.
Community"
With a declining
Jewish population and an
intermarriage rate of some-

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The Fact

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