Judaism's Choice is Division or Unification regarding Conversion

The attacks against the Eternal Jewish Family are being leveraged on the now defunct reputation of Rabbi Leib Tropper, and this risks exacerbating divisions in the Jewish world even further. The debate over conversion must retain a decorum and mutual respect if these crucial issues of Jewish society and its unfortunate divisions are to be resolved.

That being said, the Eternal Jewish Family's effort to push the most stringent of standards to universalize conversion is both unrealistic and unnecessary, and risks driving well-meaning converts from a seemingly divisive and disrespectful community. Furthermore, the progressive elimination of Orthodox Rabbis from the list of acceptable authorities concentrates the conversion process into the hands of a select few. Last week, Orthodox Rabbi Mark Angel, former president of the Rabbinical Council of America responded to inquiries by reporter Paul Berger by saying "When power is concentrated in the hands of a few self-righteous rabbis, the result is inevitably corruption, injustice, immorality."

The point by Rabbi Angel turns the logic that power to conduct conversions must be centralized and regulated upside down. This scandal, true or not, highlights the tremendous possibility that corruption among any central committee for conversion would immediately call into question the validity of that particular group's conversion, further exacerbating the conversion crisis. Even from a conservative standpoint, this should all be cause for alarm.

This brings to attention the reason why we as a community should be concerned about centralizing conversion at all. The cause has been seen as an effort to prevent future problems in the conversion process. That particular reason is based on to previous causes for concern - the non-commitment of some converts to Jewish practice, and problems in the conversion process that would retroactively annul said conversion. What is important to bear in mind is that these are two separate issues that have been unfortunately misrepresented as a single matter of contention.

This has hurt the public and legal debates about conversion, and totally confused the general Jewish public as to what is creating these massive social and political divisions. As has been handled by Orthodox authorities the last several years, the issue has come to perpetuate divisions in the Jewish community and actually embitter them, rather than resolving a potentially larger crisis of future generations, separate groups of Jews who would not be able to marry each other in the future, God forbid. We have to remember that if a conversion is conducted without all of the stringencies even the most conservative approach to the matter demands, such a conversion is not necessarily invalid. So too, we cannot forget the benefit of demanding more than the minimum from anyone and taking our time to make sure any new Jews are well-integrated into the Jewish community.

In the early 1990s, Yeshiva University Chancellor Rabbi Norman Lamm led a cross-denominational effort to create a universal standard of conversion in the United States, trying to stem the growth of this very crisis before it grew. Those efforts failed because of reservations by several Rabbinic leaders, to which he lamented it was a missed opportunity to resolve other major issues between different denominations of Judaism.

No matter the outcome of the debate in Jewish law, the goal must remain common among Jewish groups - the unification of the Jewish community. Assuredly from any religious standpoint, that community's welcoming of converts must be open, and the sanctity of the conversion process must be preserved for those people who have made the tremendous commitment to observe the rites and fight for the welfare of Jews the world over.

That being said, we face a challenge, but one that we must believe can ultimately be resolved. Intermarriage has created problems, but optimistic leaders of all denominations increasingly determine reaching out to mixed families and strengthening bonds to Judaism is the optimal response to Judaism's intertwined crises of assimilation, intermarriage and conversion. Members of all denominations must demand of their leaders to work their damnedest to mend the fences, mesh the viewpoints and resolve this catharsis in the Jewish world with a unified and genuine policy of conversion.