winterbadger | conversion to Judaism

brithistorian was asking about this process...

So much depends on the branch and even the individual congregation you end up joining. Almost all of my experience has been with one Reform congregation in Norhtern Virginia, a fairly mainstream place within the Reform movement.

The conversion process: I began by participating in Torah study for a while to get a feeling for the local shul I was thinking of joining.

These were Saturday morning informal collections of adults reading and discussing Torah passages with rabbinical support, no specific theological skill level or religious affiliation required. Most of the participants were members of the congregation, but a good many of them were not bar/bat mitzvah (there was a point in the Reform movement, probably 30-40 years ago, when BM was thought a rather outdated and overly ritualistic practice; also, many of the women had come to Reform from Conservative or Orthodox upbringings, where girls either didn't have any ceremony, or what they had focussed on "home" skills like sewing and cooking, not on learning--again, this is all several decades ago). There were also a few regulars who were not members of the congregation or even Jews. One or two people like me, who particpated out of interest in learning more about Judaism, and one Indian Christian gentleman who never said as much but was clearly there to "bring the word to the heathen." (He was always treated very politely.)

Anyway, after I had gotten a feeling for what the people there were like and knew that it was a place I would feel comfortable, I made an appointment and talked to the senior rabbi, a rather brusque elderly fellow (the congregation's first rabbi and a concentration camp survivor). He suggested I take the intro to Judaism class that the UAHC (the Reform movement's organziation in the US) gives yearly, by chance held at this temple that season) and learn what the process would involve, get more background in Judaism, etc. Once I'd done that, if I wished to continue, I would study with him for a while until he was satisfied I was doing this for the right reasons and knew what I was getting into. If that went well, I'd have to be examined by a bet din (a religious court--really a panel) (I forget to mention this step in my short description to

brithistorian) so as to satisfy a formal authority that my intentions were genuine. Then I'd undergo an immersion ceremony and take a vow. No circumcision (since I was already circumcised), and though some rabbis (even some Reform ones) will ask that the convert undergo... I've forgotten the Hebrwe name for it, but pricking the penis so as to shed blood, as a ritual gesture. He didn't require that, and didn't even ask that uncircumcised men take that step; he had been really appalled, he said, that a Japanese man who had studied for conversion with him insisted on undergoing full circumcision and *without* anaesthetic (I suppose to experience a true Abrahamic experience--I got the impression the rabbi though that was just a little sick...)

All of that more or less took place in that order. I was his last student for conversion before he retired, and I felt at the time and since then that he was a little... disengaged from the process. Our study sessions weren't so much a dialogue about the issues he asked me to study as him holding forth for a while on the topic, asking if I had any questions, and then talking some more, sometimes in response to my questions, sometimes seemingly not so much. The class was interesting, and afforded me the opportunity to meet more people from my congregation and from elsewhere in the area. They were mostly people who were either converting to Judaism to get married (and their spouses) or folks from other movements learning more about Reform. I was the only person who was converting purely for philosophical/theological reasonsl I got the impression that doesn't happen much.

The bet din (at a big downtown shul, because they have a proper mikvah, or ritual bathing pool) ended up being two rabbis (the current senior rabbi, a wonderful woman who took over from my teacher when he became emeritus, and her new assistant) and the cantor, a very interesting guy who came to the clergy after being a policeman and who has worked as a chaplain with various police departments since then. They asked me some questions about my intentions and about what I had learned, asked Chris some questions, and pronounced themselves satisfied. I did the ritual immersion (no clothes, not even contact lenses :-) with its vows, then we went back to our temple and I took the oaths of commitment. It's a very simple ceremony, but very moving.

I should add that I've fallen away from practice, for a variety of reasons, some of which I realize are very bad ones, others of which are enough to keep me thinking. I still make contributions to the rabbi's fund at my synagogue, and I'd go back there if I got involved in formal religion again. There are just some issues I need to work out for myself about religion and God and community. But I certainly beleive that Reform Judaism is one of the best possible "fits" for my personal philosophy: it's oriented towards this world and what we do in it; it has a certain amount of ritual and ceremony, but it doesn't encourage supersition and pro-forma reverence; and while it is a community-centered faith, it emphasizes the importance of the individual conscience, the necessity for continuous learning and personal growth, and the centrality of justice, mercy, and compassion to human relations.