Spiritual Citizenship: Reflections on Hilkbot Giyyur JEREMY KALMANOFSKY —O OAL tur age is witnessing a major innovation in Conservative wedding O- ine the hatb signe, bef te Hig boeds before the glass is broken, rabbis often sanctify Jewish marriages with another ritual: The conversion. Even committed Jews often choose to marry people from Gentile back grounds, who then choose to convert. The 2001 NJPS estimates there are around 180,000 Jews by choice in America, most of whom presumably convert before (or sometimes after) marrying Jews. Conversionary mar riages constitute 10 percent of member houscholds in Conservative syna gogues, says sociologist Steven M. Cohen. Since conversions transform intermarriages into Jewish ones, we should look on each occucrence as ter- tific news. The converts I myself have guided became spiritually open, committed, growing Jews, admittedly with some disappointing exceptions. Often, they spur their spouses to greater Jewish engagement, Amr Israelis fortunate to have them. But these blessed relationships are ereated by the same forces that pro- duce pervasive intermarriage, These forces apply across the board in the Diaspora, and will not change soon, I have known life-long Orthodox Jews, Israelis, children of rabbis and even rabbinical students who select born- Gentiles as mates or dating partners. They are not scorning Judaism. Am: can culture simply overwhelms them. High intermarriage tates are the inevitable outcome of our integration into open, diverse societies. Virtually 36-© Spiritual Citizenship: Reflections on Hilkhot Giyyur every American Jew lives beyond narrow ultra-Orthodox enclaves, values ‘our common institutions and finds racism repulsive. Vietually all Ametican Jews send their children to school with Christians, Muslims, Hindus and secularists, from West African, South Asian or Northern European stock ‘Anything less would be un-American! But those who celebrate professional, educational and personal relationships with those different from ourselves must also expect that those social bonds will create romances and babies. ‘What shall we do then? Our best hope is to encourage the non-Jewish partners to convert. The generation now in their 20s and 30s often declaims that the Jewish community's stress on ive and xenophobic. Classical Judaism may not be totally free of these vices, but it always understood that committed families best acculturate dren. So we should face facts: Intermarriage correlates to diminished Jewish behavior and identification. The 2001 NJPS found that among the married, 66 percent reported that being Jewish was “very important” to them; among the intermarried, 30 percent self-described this way. In terms of practice, fewer than half of intermarried Jews aged 25-39 attended a Passover seder, compared with 96 percent of the in-married in that cohort. Volunteering in Jewish community, visiting Israel, keeping kosher, lighting Shabbat candles are all four to five times more likely among families with two Jewish parents (around 50-60 percent) than intermarried parents (around 10-15 percent). Both endogamny and out-marriage replicate them- selves: Jews with two Jewish parents marry other Jews at a rate of around 75 percent; Jews under 40 with one Jewish parent marry non-Jews at a rate around 75 percent? Numbers alone cannot determine which out-reach policies our communities ought to follow. But even under the rosiest scenarios, it seems to me that rich Jewish life is likeliest when all adults in a home identify as Jews. Like every pulpit rabbi, I know and cele- brate exceptions to this role, But it applies on the whole. Its difficult to see ‘widespread intermarriage strengthening Jewish identification over time. And since our children wall continue to marry non-Jews, conversion is the arriage is narrow, coer- best way to nurture their Jewish commitment, Stakes are high in how we manage conversions, however. First, we Con servatives assert our loyalty to the rabbinic canon of sacred texts and legal processes. For our own religious integrity, Conservative giyyur must accord with halakhah, Furthermore, we assert our loyalty to klal Israel, Catholic-© Jeremy Kalmanofsky > Israel, Let us execute Conservative giyyur so that the widest segments of our international family can recognize it. If we choose to do what seems right to us, without regard for how other groups of Jews will respond, that is a policy for Protestant Israel, not Catholic Israel Most significant, the method by which one crosses the border from Gen tile to Jew reveals our conception of Jewishness itself. At a given moment, a “one of us.” What changed het? What doorway did he pass through, so that he now counts in the minyan? Was it a religious doorway? An ethnic one? An intellectual affir- mation? A faith act? A mark on the body? An orientation of the spirit? Does conversion depend on one’s self-definition? Or upon decisions by oth- crs, like rabbinic courts? Or perhaps upon the informal willingness of Jews to recognize someone as family? Conversely, some attitudes or behaviors may be so contraty to Judaism that they bar a person from our community, ‘compelling a bet din to reject her or a community to shun her. By identify- ing processes for joi the collective, we sketch a rough portrait of Judaism itself. And such defini ‘we mean when we say that anyone is Jewish, whether by non-Jew is transformed from “outsider” to ing Isracl, as well as elements that bar someone from sions shape wh birth or by choice In this essay, I elucidate and reflect upon some fundamentals of Hilkhot Giyyur, pointing toward what should constitute Conservative conversion, and what that process would say about our conception of being Jewish. In particular, I examine how conversion laws are organized around two paradigms: religious commitment and ethnic identification.’ Viewing Jew- ishness primarily as membership in Am Israel generally yields conversion rites of passage that mark the body. Since Gentiles are not born among, us, they need new births through initiation rituals—immersion and circumei- sion—thae usher them into our people, Consider the insightful assertion by R. Meir Pozner (18th century, Poland): “Cert acceptance of the commandments is the essence of conversion, for one still requires a sacred deed upon the body” (Beit Meir, #12). An alternative giyyur motif derives from viewing Jewishness as religious adherence to Judaism. As R. Saadya Gaon famously said, “Istael exists as a nation only by virtue of its Torah."* Since Gentiles are not commanded by Torah ot educated in its ways, they must accept the commandments willfully to enter Israel, Both these paradigms are canonized in halakhah, and both transfor aly neither instruction nor a8