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Home , Conversion to Judaism, Jewish outreach, Proselytism

AN HISTORICAL OVERVIEW OF OUTREACH AND CONVERSION IN

ROBERT M. SELTZER, PH.D. Professor of History, Hunter College and the Graduate School of the City University of

There have been much more conversion and outreach to Judaism in the past than the conventional picture implies. The lack of interest that has been predominant since the late Middle Ages is only a limited phase in a long history of cycles of isolation and out­ reach. We may now be entering into a new historic era of outreach.

he notion of broader, open-ended meaning, viewed in T that has predominated in the last the context of changing definitions of the few centuries is that it must be passive boundaries and the gateways between the and even reluctant: if people make theit Jewish people and the laigei social woflds way to Judaism by themselves and in utter it occupied in vaiious etas. Even befoie sincetity and reject the warning concerning the inception of foimal conversion, thete the lowly status of the Jewish people in was a more drawn-out mode of assimilating the world, those people ate to be gtaciously non- into the people of Isiael. accepted. But there is evidence that thete 's insistence that the home of hei late was fat more conveision and outreach to husband's mothei was to become het tiue Judaism in the past than the conventional home and that the place wheie Naomi pictuie implies and that the withdiawn, was to be buiied was the place wheie she disinterested appioach is only a mote lecent wanted to be bulled was accompanied by phase in a much longei histoiy (Seltzet, her fervent assertion that she desired mem­ 1988). bership in the people of Isiael and would Outteach in is at the woiship its . The biblical text ex- same time nairower and broader than for­ ptesses nothing but admiiation fot Ruth; mal conversion. As the tetm has come to the stoiy concludes by noting that Ruth be used tecently, outteach is a tuming to was a diiect ancestoi of Jesse, fathei of individuals who aie not accoiding to King . Regaidless of the piecise his- the Jewish law to invite them to become toiicity of the tale, it indicates that the Jews, to convince them of the desiiability giadual, infoimal integiation of such a of such a step, and to facilitate theif ac­ wofthy, devoted, pious Moabitess into the ceptance in the Jewish community. Out­ people of Istael was a live option and a reach may not be missionizing in the desirable possibility in biblical times. traditional Chiistian sense, but it is mote Such absoiption was pait of the pfo- receptive and positive m its oiientation phetic vision during the great events of than what is taken to be the usual Jewish redemption at the end of the Babylonian attitude to . exile. The sixth-century BCE prophet Defining the lelationship between con­ whom we call Second Isaiah explicitly veision and outteach in the naiiow sense refers to "foreigners who join themselves is not the only conceptual pioblem faced to the Lofd"; theii offeiings aie to be ac­ by Jewish histoiians. Outreach can have a cepted at God's altai as a sign that God's house will be "a house of player for all peoples" (Isaiah 56:3-7). These joiners Presented at the Paul Cowan Memotial Confetence will be gathered up in the exile along on Intetmatfiage, Conversion, and Outteach at the City Univetsity of New York, Octobet 14, 1989. with tbe outcasts of and brought

150 Historical Overview I back to tbe . Does tbis mean in Judaism is to define the cycles of isola­ the the exilic generation actually engaged tion and outfeach in Jewish histoiy. Clear­ in outteach? Yehczkel Kaufmann (1970) ly, the conversionist drive has been tied argues cogently that mass conversion of both to foices internal to the history of the Gentiles in biblical was es- Judaism and to forces impinging from chatological, not practical —a gtand vision­ without —to a series of long-range dynamic ary idea associated with the End of Days, processes that made conveision only a but just an idea. Yet, ideas as such ptecede theoretical possibility in some etas and an their teality. actuality in otheis. In the test of this arti­ By the second centuty BCE, formal con­ cle, three clusters of problems are presented version was unquestionably a widespread that require special clarification for a future practice in Judaism, not only in the history of Jews-by-Choice, the joiners in Diaspora but also thfough physical coercion each generation. in the land of Israel under the Hasmonean rulers who forced Idumeans and others to become Jews. Between Second Isaiah and CONVERSION IN LATE ANTIQUITY the Hasmonean kings and Diaspora out- First, there are questions dealing with con­ reachers, we have the late biblical account veision to Judaism in late antiquity when of Ezra's uncompromising injunctions in the impulse was especially fervent. How the mid-fifth century BCE that IsraeHtes was the of the Hellenistic put aside all their non-Israelite wives, and Roman periods related to the emer­ regardless of religious behavior or loyalty. gence of multiple forms of Judaism in the The silence of the books of Ezra and late period? Which groups Nehemiah concerning procedures by which spearheaded it? Did the translation of the the worthy and pious among these women into Greek (the ) in the could be formally accepted among the third century BCE spur outreach in the Judaites indicates the nonexistence of such Diaspora to non-Jews in the eastern Medi­ procedures in an era of closing ranks and terranean? How important as a source of sharpening boundaries; the main preoccu­ were the so-called sebominoi, pation was re-establishing the purity of the "God-fearers" who were said to have the "holy seed" in a mood of contrition been attracted to the singular Jewish deity for the sins of that generation and of their and to have adopted some Jewish practices, ancestors. (There is no indication, by rhe but who did not —or had not yet —become way, that Ezra's strictures were carried out full-fledged members of the people of to the degree and in the manner that he Israel (Biblical Archeological Review, J986)? demanded.) We know the three primary elements of From the fifth century BCE to the first conversion according to early rabbinic century BCE and first century CE, Jewish practice: tevilah (ntual immersion, bap­ leadership moved from the separatist tism), milah (), and the offer­ policy espoused by Ezta and Nehemiah to ing of a special at the the friendly attitude to ptoselytes men­ temple. What was required in the Diaspora tioned by such wfitcfs as the Alexandrian of such converts? In Judea did the Sad- Jewish philosopher Philo, the Jewish histor­ ducees, the priestly party, oppose outreach ian , the Roman historian Tacitus, and the support it? Although the authof of the book of the Pharisees were bitterly critical of the Matthew (see Matthew i^'s) ^^id at- later Hasmonean kings for their cruelty tfibuted in the to the sage Hillel and religious perversions, there is no indi­ (see Babli 31a). cation that the royal conversionist policies came under attack. Did the rise of apoca­ One of the key methodological ptoblems lyptic fanaticism spur conversion, or (more in reconstructing the history of conversion 13 2. / journal of Jewish Communal Service

likely) did such groups as the Essenes, doms and states that had as tbeii official preoccupied with the end of history, tutn one of Judaism's two daughtet away from efforts to bring Jewish mono­ teligions, Chtistianity ot . Recently to the Gentiles? Did the Jewish Noiman Golb (1987) of the Univeisity of wats against the Romans in the fitst and Chicago has shown that the eta of active second cemufies inhibit tbe pace of prose- Jewish conveisionism lasted much longei lytism or (as the sources seem to indicate) than has been suspected. He concludes make little difference? that "we may peiceive, ftom the vatiety of In the Talmud thete is an indication texts available, that Jewish in that significant numbers of conversions to the early Middle Ages was a phenomenon Judaism continued to occur until the that can be ttaced ftom the ninth century of the Roman Empire in onwards, and seems to have leached its the fourth century, when the Chiistian apogee in the eleventh centuiy" (Golb, emperors issued legislation against it 1987, p. 36). Not a few of these conveits (Bambeiger, 1968; Braude, 1940; Nock, whose stories have come down to us in 1933; Rosenbloom, 1978). If conversion to Jewish and Christian chionicles wete Judaism continued to be pievalent, why monks attiacted to the Jewish exactly did win far more con­ because of theii study of the Old Testa­ verts than Judaism in the 150 years during ment; they then settled in Muslim lands which they weie more or less on the same wheie conveision from Chtistianity to footing? Christianity began as ajewish Judaism was not prohibited (although , and the early Jewish-Christians in conversion from Islam to Judaism was). Jerusalem were possessed by apocalyptic On the basis of the materials in tbe Caiio fervor. Yet Chtistianity spiead mote suc­ Genizah, Golb (1987) goes so fat as to cessfully among Hellenized Jews and pagans estimate that 15,000 men and women fled in the Diaspora than among Judean Jews Europe to become Jewish conveits in the and even more rapidly among pagans than Islamic wotld between 1000 and iioo. among Jews anywhere. Were the afoiemen- There was also conveision to Judaism on tioned sebominoi a ctucial element in the the ffontiei between the uiban civilized early expansion of Chtistianity? Thete aie wotld and tbe barbaiian wilderness —the other comparative questions too. An in­ Judaizing of the Khazais, a Tuikish peo­ dividual went through a conveision in tbe ple living on the steppe ftontiei of Eastem foim of an initiation litual when enteiing Europe. In his careful analysis of Hebrew a pagan mysteiy ; Jewish and Chiistian epistles puipoiting to be a coiiespondence conveision have as a common theme that between the Khazar king and ceitain the conveit is boin anew. What weie the Spanish Jews, Golb concludes that "a genu­ theological, sociological, and psychological ine, widespread proselytized labbinic Juda­ differences between Jewish and Chiistian ism was implanted in Khazaria in the ninth conveision on the one hand and conver­ and tenth centuiies" (Golb, 1987, p. 47). sion to pagan religions on the othei, and If Jewish outreach remained vigorous between initiation into the Chiistian mys- until the nth century, how can we ac­ teiies and acceptance into Knesset Yisrael, count for the petering out of this extend­ the Jewish people? ed conversionist impulse in the High Mid­ dle Ages aftet 1100? To be sure, it had been a capital crime since the fouith cen­ CONVERSION IN THE MIDDLE AGES tuty for a Christian to convert to Judaism A second aiea of special inteiest is conver­ in Christian lands (and a Muslim in Islamic sion to Judaism in the eaily Middle Ages lands). Did a tightening up of the political when Jews weie adapting to life in king­ systems in the Christian Diaspora make it Historical Overview I noticeably less likely that a convert and his histotical record? (One should note, how­ Jewish mentors could avoid punishment? evef, that conversions to Judaism continue Did heightened Christian aggtessiveness to occur regularly in every century down against Jews from the thirteenth to fifteenth to modern times.) ccntuties —missionizing, public disputa­ tions, social and economic segtegation, ex­ propriation, and expulsions —make Jewish OUTREACH IN MODERN JEWRY authodties featful of the ptactical conse­ A thitd area of questions concefns the mix quences of encouraging or even condoning of factors affecting outfeach in modetn conversion? Gershom Scholem repeatedly Western Jewfy in the nineteenth and argued that the was the major twentieth centuries. We seem to be enter­ element in preserving Jewish morale in the ing a new era of Jewish proselytizing, eatly modern era when othet Jewish theolo­ fesembling the Hellenistic and Roman eras gies, such as Afistotelian , had and the early Middle Ages, rather than lost theif appeal. The Kabbalah fefers to the centuries since. When legal sanctions proselytes with respect, but ascribes a against convetsion to Judaism ceased to second-class status to them. Did a mystical exist in Europe and the United States, the distancing ftom the outside social world explosive fofce of modern anti-Semitism contribute to banking the flames of Jewish continued to sustain the negative valence proselytizing? In contrast to the Kabbalistic of Jewishness in the eyes of many Gentiles conception that the Jewish people occupy who might have been attfacted to the ­ a distinctly different metaphysical status ish . The nineteenth-centuty concept than othef peoples was the tendency among of the "Mission of Istael," arriculated by some Jewish thinkers, especially from the Refotm, Neo-Onhodox, and Positive-Histor­ sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, to ical thinkets alike, provided a rationale fof view Christianity as a legitimately mono­ outfeach, but no ptactical pfogram. Biting theistic religion fof Gentiles rather than as Cfiticism of the ethefcal notion of a posi­ a fotm of . Did this tolerance also tive yet passive mission in the Diaspora to inhibit the impulse to teach out? spread pure ethical monotheism was one of the motifs of Zionist thought at the In the foimation of the latet attitude, end of the nineteenth century. The social pethaps the most ctucial long-fange issue idealism of Eastefn European Jewish ideol­ is the fole of ethnicity, so powerful a force ogies was grounded in the aspiradons of in maintaining Jewish consciousness. Yet, secular nationalism and the goal of collec­ ethnicity is, in tbe last analysis, a variable tive Jewish self-emancipation. Leaders of and nor a constant: not only its intensity political and cultuial and most but also its natute and pafameters differ othei fotms of Jewish nationalism wete from age to age and land to land. Wefe agnostic, if not actually antiieligious, so Jews of the eafly modern era, especially in that fotmal teligious conversion did not Easrern Europe, that much mote ethnical­ find a place on their agenda of issues. In ly self-aware because of the natufe of theif effect, it did not exisr for them. social and linguistic distinctiveness (a view articulated by some Jewish histofians)? Militant secularism has disappeared, but How great a role did ethnicity play in the Zionist tevolution within modem eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Jewish Jewty has resulted in a far more positive atdtudes to outreach, or does the com­ evaluation of the rich texture of Jewish bination of condnued legal pfohibidons, histoiical cultuie than among modem anti-Semitic attitudes, and social stigma nineteenth-centuiy Jews. In genetal, consutute a sufficient explanadon for the Ameiican cultute since the 1960s has ex­ felatively few proselytes who appeaf in the hibited a mote appieciative attitude to / Joumal of Jewish Communal Service ethnic elements in personal identity, to dividualized, voluntary, and self-determined ttadition as such, and to the virtues of than ever before, the situation of the Jew- religious faith. Clearly, the precipitating by-Choice is no longer the exception but cause leading to a shift in Jewish attitudes the rule. The contemporary challenge, has been the swift tise in the rate of intet- then, to our movements and our leaders is marriage. Contempotary intermarriage, to respond in an appropriately nuanced which can be viewed as a sign of tbe social manner to adapt Judaism to the changes acceptability of Jews among Gentiles, is a that history, especially modern history, threat to Jewish survival, to be sure. But continues to force on us. as Egon Mayer (1985, p. L86) has pointed out, "Intetmatriage itself rarely leads to REFERENCES assimilation" but to a variety of patterns. Bamberger, Bernard J. (1968). Proselytism in Intermarriage may bold an opportunity all the talmudic period. New York: KTAV its own because it creates, like the sebom­ Publishing Company. inoi of the Hellenistic and Roman eras, a Biblical Archeological Review. (1986). population that contains individuals who September/October, 72;5. are gradually Judaizing. The context for Braude, William B. {i<).i,o). Jewish proselytism born Jews and potential new Jews, thete- in the first five centuries of the common era; fore, has shifted drastically since the late The age of the tannaim and . 1940s. Were it not for frictions between Providence, RI: Brown University Press, the Jewish religious denominations in the 1940. Diaspota and blatant hostility of teligious Golb, Norman (I'^^-j). Jewish proselytism—A authorities in Istael to Refotm and Consei- phenomenon in the religious history of early vative Judaism, we would be well into a medieval Europe. Tenth annual Louis Feinbeig Memorial Lecture. Cincinnati: new historic era of outreach. Indeed, even Judaic Studies Program of the University of with these frictions and hostilities we Cincinnati. probably have entered this new era. Golb, Notman, & Ptitsak, O. (1981). Khazarian The necessary, if not the sufficient, ele­ Hebrew documents of the tenth century. ment of the novel situation we face today Ithaca, NY: Cornel) University Press. is not intermarriage in itself, but rising in­ Kaufmann, Yehezkel. (1970). The Babylonian termarriage at a time when the essential captivity and Deutero-lsaiah (Clarence W. Efroymson, trans.). New York: Union of differences between Jews-by-Birth and Jews- American Hebrew Congregations. by-Choice are disappearing. In our American Mayer, Egon. (19S3). Love and tradition: milieu, the vast majority of Jews are Jews- Marriage between Jews and Christians. New by-Choice in one way or another. The iner­ York: Plenum Publishing Company. tia of ttaditionalist culture and the force Nock, A. D. (1933): Conversion: The old and of anti-Semitism will not suffice to main­ the new in religion from Alexander the tain the Jewishness of most Diaspota Jews. Great to Augustine of Hippo. London: Living Jewishly means deciding to be Jew­ Oxford University Press. ish in some meaningful way—participating Rosenbloom, Joseph R. (1978). Conversion to in Jewish affairs, determining to cieate a Judaism: Prom the biblical period to the Jewish home, committing oneself to the present. Cincinnati: Hebrew Union College acquisition of Jewish learning in a syna­ Press. gogue education program or in Jewish Seltzer, Robert M. (19SS). Joining the courses at a university or in some people from biblical to modern times. In Martin E. Marty & Frederick E. Greenspahn other manner. The crucial decision can oc­ (Eds.), Pushing the jaith: Proselytism and cur at almost any time in one's mature civility in a pluralistic world. New York: years and is not unlike an adult conversion Crossroad. experience. If being Jewish is more in­