Rabbi Lee Diamond provides an amazing service and opportunity we thought well worth sharing. The person who was born as someone other than a Jew, yet, in spite of the demands and hardships associated with being a Jew chooses to become one, is not something of insignificance. Israel Celebration Tours
Quite the contrary; with the intermarriage rate of more than 50% for Jews, the person who actively chooses to become a part of the Jewish religion and people is an individual that should be supported by the Jewish community in which the “Jew by Choice” lives.
I do not suggest that we seek out converts, but rather, once an individual has made the decision to become a Jew and has met the criteria, we as the community have an obligation to embrace and welcome this person into our community. We are taught that once a person has converted to Judaism that we are never permitted to remind him of this fact. It is as if, from the moment of conversion, that the person has always been a Jew. I like the sensitivity of this concept.
With the converts I have met over the years, I have found many of them far more committed to Judaism than their spouse (in the case where marriage was the impetus for conversion). But in almost all cases and this includes reform, conservative and orthodoxy, the “Jews by Choice” make a decision to connect with the religion or “Torat Yisrael”, and this is the essential element in their conversion. They do not develop a relationship with Eretz Yisrael.
Nonetheless, our tradition has a “Jew by Choice” take on a new name and that person becomes a ben/bat Avraham Avinu. The Rabbis knew that conversion to Judaism entailed not only a religious conversion but a “national conversion” as well. The “Jew by Choice” became a member of our people, of Am Yisrael. If they are lucky and their community has embraced them, they may feel somewhat connected to Am Yisrael. But the land of Israel and the history of the people that lived and presently live there, all too often are overlooked and even ignored as playing a part in the life of the “Jew by Choice”.
This is not a commentary on the conversion classes the individual might attend. In reality, it is extremely difficult to develop a relationship with a country and its people that you have neither visited nor met. A study or classroom cannot be the place to learn, appreciate and understand Eretz Yisrael. It was not until Henry Kissinger, a man thoroughly familiar with the Middle East, went up to the Golan Heights did he come to understand its strategic importance to the security of Israel. It is only when you walk the path of Joshua, stand in the footsteps of the Zealots atop Massada, and look out in Lebanon from a kibbutz situated on the border, do you come to understand this ancient new land called Israel.
The knowledge of Jewish history and identification with it is one of the primary ways in which a person becomes a ben/bat Avraham Avinu. The convert must not only receive the Torah, but must see him/her self as if he/she came out of Egypt and must stand together as part of the nation that stood at Mt. Sinai. The “Jew by Choice” must see him/herself standing with the rest of the Jewish people at the Exodus, at Sinai, at Auschwitz and at Independence Hall on the 5th of Iyar, 1948.
There is nowhere in the world better than Eretz Yisrael to learn the history of our people and form a connection with that history. In the environment of Israel, which is a totally Jewish environment, the “Jew by Choice” has the opportunity to learn our history, to visit the places and sites that reflect that history, and to celebrate together with the nation of Israel in its many forms the unique nature of Jewish identity.
It is for these reasons it has been suggested that as part of the conversion, the “Jew by Choice” and the spouse take a trip to Israel. In fact, if desired, the final step of conversion can take place in Israel. The goal of the trip is to bind the “Jew by Choice” to not only Torat and Am Yisrael but to add the missing element, Eretz Yisrael while strengthening the ties to the other two.
For more details go to his site at Israel Celebration Tours
