From: sethr@cbnewsl.cb.att.com (seth.r.rosenthal)
Subject: Re: become jewish ?
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories
Date: Mon, 17 Aug 1992 14:38:17 GMT

In article <Bt2Mpn.379.1@cs.cmu.edu>, clamen@CS.CMU.EDU (Stewart Clamen) writes:
> In article <1992Aug14.161603.5361@cbnewsl.cb.att.com> sethr@cbnewsl.cb.att.com (seth.r.rosenthal) writes:
> 
>    Also, among some Sephardim, although conversion is "recognized"
>    they consider that it is different to be born a Jew or converted to
>    a Jew (halachically or not).  I have met a couple (both non-Jews)
>    who were refused by a Sephardic rabbi and then converted into a
>    Chasidic group.  I think the rabbi was from Syria.
> 
> Certainly not "mainstream" Sephardic tradition.  If this were the
> case, the various problems that sprung up between the Sephardic
> Rabbinate in Israel and the Bene Israel (Ethiopian Jews) would have
> been quite different.
> 
> On the other hand, I can imagine that the Jews from Arab lands could
> be quite reticient to convert anyone.  Historically, conversion to
> Jewry (from Islam), being contrary to Islamic Law, was probably very
> difficult or downright illegal in Islamic countries.

I have responded by e-mail to one posting on this, but
perhaps i ought to say publicly more or less what I said
privately.

All of this is my personal experience or those of close friends
in the USA.  Here, Sephardim have been assimilating in roughly
the same ratios as Ashkenazim.  Note, I am 42 and times have
changed somewhat.

1) In my single days I attempted to date 3 Sephardi women.  All
spent some time with me, but would not allow me to meet their
parents and ended the relationships because their parents wouldn't
accept me as Jewish (all 3 would go out on Friday nights so it
wasn't a religious observance issue).

2) A Romaniote Jewish friend of mine had to nearly end his
relationship with his parents because he married an Ashkenazi
woman.

3) Sephardic neighbors of mine accepted the Ashkenazi spouses
of their children, so long as the children would be brought
up in a Sephardi Synagogue, learn Ladino, etc.

4) Female friends who grew up on Ocean Parkway, near the Syrian Jewish
community tell of their teenage relationships with Syrian
Jewish men, that get broken the day after the prom, because of
their engagement to their new Syrian (usually 13-15 year old)
fiancee'.  Again these women weren't Jewish enough.

5) I have been told by religious Iraqi and Syrian Jews that
I am not really a Jew (halachically I am, my maternal line
is Kohan or Levite actually for at least three generations from
my maternal grandmother).  No religious Ashkenazi Jew would ever
claim this.  (especially not a Lubavitcher, since my maternal
grandfather's line seems to have a relationship to them)

I believe that the relatively liberal rulings of Maimonides with
respect to forced converts to Islam and Christianity from among
the Jews would not have happened in Eastern Europe.  I'm pretty
sure the Ashkenazi rabbinate is not too liberal wrt Frankists
and Cantonists e.g.(all Ashkenazi converts to Christianity).

I believe the replacment of the strict religious traditions with
more modern secular views in Israel is allowing the communities to
merge.  I don't live there so I can't
say first-hand, but this is what I read.

As for the Ethiopians, the Sephardim have always recognized
them as Jews, and in fact have had contact with them for
centuries.  They were only a shocking discovery for Eastern
European Jews.  Ethiopians were in Germany studying in
German Jewish schools as early as the 1890's.  Blame the
Ethiopian problem on the isolation of Eastern Europe's
Jews.  Most other communities didn't have a problem with
them, and in fact they were declared halachically Jewish
long before the Israeli rabbinate argued while thousands
were dying of starvation and atrocities in refugee camps
in Sudan.

Conversion to Judaism was punishable by death to the convert
and the rabbi in Eastern Europe until the Enlightenment
came to Eastern European governments.  Prior to the
11th century Judaism was indeed missionary in Europe.
During Roman times particularly, but there is evidence
of it in pre-11th century Hungary as well.
There is evidence of it in the 13th century
Judaizing Heresy in Moscow as well.
We see no reticence on the part of Ashkenazi
rabbis to accept sincere converts (whether OCR).  Yet
they were under the very same fear as in the Muslim world.


		Seth Rosenthal


Disclaimer: All opinions are my own, not my employers'.