Propone el Outreach Institute, programa de “conversión” para goyim seculares que quieren ser judíos

Almost two weeks ago, the two of us proposed that Jewish communities consider  instituting an alternative pathway to joining the Jewish People. As the Jewish  Community Study of New York: 2011 demonstrated, thousands of Americans – many  married to Jews, many with Jewish children and grandchildren, and many with  Jewish friends – have already chosen to identify as Jews without converting.  Though not raised Jewish, these people – amounting to 5% of the adult Jewish  respondents in the New York study – affirm their sense of Jewish belonging  without necessarily taking on a Jewish religious identity. In contrast, those  who have undergone conversion constitute barely 2% of the respondents in the  study.

We believe this already widespread phenomenon merits encouragement and  enrichment. Not only do we wish that more people embrace being Jewish, we seek  to deepen their Jewish identification by their encountering the full breadth of  Jewish civilization – history, literature, politics, music, Israel, communal  life, social action, acts of caring, and, yes, holidays, congregations, sacred  texts, and ritual practice. For those who would prefer not (yet?) to acquire a  Jewish religious identity but still want a Jewish social/cultural identity, they  could undergo what we tentatively called, “Jewish Cultural Affirmation.”

We believe that some prospective converts to Judaism feel that religious  conversion demands what, for them, would be an insincere affirmation of  religious faith. Perhaps they are agnostic or atheist or secular, or even  committed to another faith tradition. As a result, many would-be members of the  Jewish People have no possibility of engaging in a course of study and  socialization leading to public recognition of their having joined the Jewish  People, and they have limited access to enriching their familiarity with “lived  Judaism,” the actual culture and ethos of Jewish life as lived in families and  communities.

“Jewish Cultural Affirmation” would be clearly distinguished from Jewish  religious conversion, which remains a rabbinic prerogative ; but while  “non-religious,” JCA would not at all assume an “anti-religious” ethos. Nor are  we suggesting that JCA undermine or obviate the traditional path to conversion.  Rather, by offering an additional vehicle to acquiring a Jewish social identity,  Jewish Cultural Affirmation would allow prospective candidates to acquire a  measure of familiarity with being Jewish, and undergo a non-religious pathway to  recognized belonging to the Jewish People.

Now, many rabbis and religiously committed Jews find our proposal troubling  because they regard religious commitment as absolutely essential to Jewish  identity. We certainly understand and even sympathize with that position, which  is one reason why we distinguish religious conversion from Jewish Cultural  Affirmation. At the same time, we know that major segments of the American  Jewish population exhibit little religious commitment and even go so far to say  as they have no religion. Why shouldn’t newcomers to the Jewish People have the  same option? As Yossi Beilin of Israel once asked, “Why should an agnostic  Gentile need to go to a rabbi to become an agnostic Jew?”

Now, along comes Rabbi Andy Bachman – whom we hold in very high esteem – and  he dismisses the need for Jewish Cultural Affirmation with the curious argument  that he already converts people to Judaism even if they “don’t believe in God”  or are “ambivalent about religion or God.” To which we have a few questions that  are especially pertinent to people who want to join the Jewish group (or family,  or community, or People, or some of the above), but have an aversion to God and  to religion.

Read more: http://forward.com/articles/188947/another-way-to-join-the-jewish-people/#ixzz2nP4hnriW