A N H I S T O R I C A L O V E R V I E W OF O U T R E A C H

A N D C O N V E R S I O N IN J U D A I S M
ROBERT

M.

SELTZER,

PH.D.

Professor of History, Hunter College and the Graduate School of the City University of New York
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 conversion to Judaism

that has predominated in the last
few centuries is that it must be passive
and even reluctant: if people make theit
way to Judaism by themselves and in utter
sincetity and reject the warning concerning
the lowly status of the Jewish people in
the world, those people ate to be gtaciously
accepted. But there is evidence that thete
was fat more conveision and outreach to
Judaism in the past than the conventional
pictuie implies and that the withdiawn,
disinterested appioach is only a mote lecent
phase in a much longei histoiy (Seltzet,
1988).

Outteach in Jewish history is at the

same time nairower and broader than for
mal conversion. As the tetm has come to
be used tecently, outteach is a tuming to
individuals who aie not Jews accoiding to
the Jewish law to invite them to become
Jews, to convince them of the desiiability
of such a step, and to facilitate theif ac
ceptance in the Jewish community. Out
reach may not be missionizing in the
traditional Chiistian sense, but it is mote
receptive and positive m its oiientation
than what is taken to be the usual Jewish
attitude to Gentiles.

broader, open-ended meaning, viewed in

the context of changing definitions of the
boundaries and the gateways between the
Jewish people and the laigei social woflds
it occupied in vaiious etas. Even befoie
the inception of foimal conversion, thete
was a more drawn-out mode of assimilating
non-Israelites into the people of Isiael.
Ruth's insistence that the home of hei late
husband's mothei was to become het tiue
home and that the place wheie Naomi
was to be buiied was the place wheie she
wanted to be bulled was accompanied by
her fervent assertion that she desired mem
bership in the people of Isiael and would
woiship its God. The biblical text exptesses nothing but admiiation fot Ruth;
the stoiy concludes by noting that Ruth
was a diiect ancestoi of Jesse, fathei of
King David. Regaidless of the piecise histoiicity of the tale, it indicates that the
giadual, infoimal integiation of such a
wofthy, devoted, pious Moabitess into the
people of Istael was a live option and a
desirable possibility in biblical times.

Defining the lelationship between con

veision and outteach in the naiiow sense
is not the only conceptual pioblem faced
by Jewish histoiians. Outreach can have a
Presented at the Paul Cowan Memotial Confetence
on Intetmatfiage, Conversion, and Outteach at the
City Univetsity of New York, Octobet 1 4 , 1989.

150

Such absoiption was pait of the pfophetic vision during the great events of
redemption at the end of the Babylonian
exile. The sixth-century BCE prophet
whom we call Second Isaiah explicitly
refers to "foreigners who join themselves
to the Lofd"; theii offeiings aie to be ac
cepted at God's altai as a sign that God's
house will be "a house of player for all
peoples" (Isaiah 5 6 : 3 - 7 ) . These joiners
will be gathered up in the exile along
with tbe outcasts of Israel and brought

Historical

Overview

back to tbe land o f Israel. D o e s tbis m e a n

in Judaism is to define the cycles o f isola

the the exilic generation actually e n g a g e d

tion and outfeach in Jewish histoiy. Clear

in outteach? Yehczkel K a u f m a n n (1970)

ly, the conversionist drive has b e e n tied

argues cogently that mass conversion o f

both to foices internal to the history o f

the Gentiles in biblical prophecy was es-

Judaism and to forces i m p i n g i n g from

chatological, not practical a gtand vision

without to a series o f long-range dynamic

ary idea associated with the End o f Days,

processes that m a d e conveision only a

but just an idea. Y e t , ideas as such ptecede

theoretical possibility in s o m e etas and an

their teality.

actuality in o t h e i s . In the test o f 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 J u d a i s m , not only in the

history of Jews-by-Choice, the joiners in

Diaspora but also thfough physical coercion

each generation.

in the land o f Israel under the H a s m o n e a n

rulers w h o forced Idumeans and others to
b e c o m e Jews. Between Second Isaiah and

CONVERSION IN LATE ANTIQUITY

the H a s m o n e a n kings and Diaspora out-

First, there are questions dealing with con

reachers, we have the late biblical account

veision to Judaism in late antiquity w h e n

of Ezra's u n c o m p r o m i s i n g injunctions in

the impulse was especially fervent. H o w

the mid-fifth century BCE that IsraeHtes

was the Jewish outreach o f the Hellenistic

put aside all their non-Israelite wives,

and Roman periods related to the emer

regardless o f religious behavior or loyalty.

gence o f m u l t i p l e forms of Judaism in the

The silence o f the books o f Ezra and

late Second T e m p l e period? W h i c h groups

N e h e m i a h concerning procedures by which

spearheaded it? D i d the translation o f the

the worthy and pious a m o n g these w o m e n

Bible into Greek (the Septuagint) in the

could be formally accepted a m o n g the

third century BCE spur outreach in the

Judaites indicates the nonexistence o f such

Diaspora to non-Jews in the eastern Medi

procedures in an era o f closing ranks and

terranean? H o w important as a source o f

sharpening boundaries; the main preoccu

proselytes were the so-called

pation was re-establishing the purity o f

the "God-fearers" w h o were said to have

sebominoi,

the "holy seed" in a m o o d o f 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 n o indication, by rhe

but w h o did not or had not yet become

way, that Ezra's strictures were carried out

full-fledged members o f the p e o p l e o f

to the degree and in the manner that he

Israel (Biblical Archeological Review,

demanded.)

W e know the three primary e l e m e n t s o f

From the fifth century BCE to the first

century BCE and first century CE, Jewish

J986)?

conversion according to early rabbinic

practice: tevilah (ntual immersion, bap

leadership m o v e d from the separatist

tism), milah (circumcision), and the offer

policy espoused by Ezta a n d N e h e m i a h to

ing o f a special sacrifice at the Jerusalem

the friendly attitude to ptoselytes m e n

temple. What was required in the Diaspora

tioned by such wfitcfs as the Alexandrian

o f such converts? In J u d e a did the Sad-

Jewish philosopher Philo, the Jewish histor

ducees, the priestly party, o p p o s e outreach

ian Josephus, the Roman historian Tacitus,

and the Pharisees support it? A l t h o u g h

the authof o f the N e w Testament book o f

the Pharisees were bitterly critical o f the

Matthew (see Matthew i ^ ' s ) ^^id at-

later Hasmonean kings for their cruelty

tfibuted in the T a l m u d to the sage Hillel

and religious perversions, there is n o indi

(see Babli Shabbat 31a).

cation that the royal conversionist policies

One o f the key methodological ptoblems

in reconstructing the history o f conversion

came under attack. D i d the rise o f apoca

lyptic fanaticism spur conversion, or (more

13 2.

journal

of Jewish

likely) d i d such groups as the Essenes,

preoccupied with the e n d o f history, tutn
away from efforts to bring Jewish m o n o
theism to the Gentiles? D i d the Jewish
wats against the Romans in the fitst and
second cemufies inhibit tbe pace of proselytism or (as the sources s e e m to indicate)
make little difference?
In t h e T a l m u d thete is an indication
that significant numbers o f conversions to
Judaism continued to occur until the
Christianization o f the R o m a n Empire in
the fourth century, w h e n t h e Chiistian
emperors issued legislation against it
(Bambeiger, 1 9 6 8 ; Braude, 1 9 4 0 ; Nock,
1 9 3 3 ; R o s e n b l o o m , 1 9 7 8 ) . If conversion to
Judaism continued to be pievalent, why
exactly d i d Christianity w i n far more con
verts than Judaism in the 1 5 0 years during
which they w e i e more or less o n the same
footing? Christianity began as a j e w i s h
sect, a n d t h e early Jewish-Christians in
Jerusalem were possessed by apocalyptic
fervor. Y e t Chtistianity spiead m o t e suc
cessfully among Hellenized Jews and pagans
in the Diaspora than a m o n g J u d e a n Jews
and even more rapidly a m o n g pagans than
among Jews anywhere. Were the afoiementioned sebominoi a ctucial e l e m e n t in the
early expansion o f Chtistianity? Thete aie
other comparative questions t o o . A n in
dividual went through a conveision in tbe
f o i m o f an initiation litual w h e n e n t e i i n g
a pagan mysteiy cult; Jewish a n d Chiistian
conveision have as a c o m m o n t h e m e that
the conveit is b o i n anew. W h a t w e i e the
theological, sociological, a n d psychological
differences between Jewish a n d Chiistian
conveision o n t h e o n e hand and conver
sion to pagan religions o n the o t h e i , a n d
b e t w e e n initiation into the Chiistian m y s teiies a n d acceptance into Knesset Yisrael,
the Jewish p e o p l e ?

CONVERSION I N THE MIDDLE AGES

A second aiea of special inteiest is conver

sion to Judaism in t h e eaily Middle A g e s
w h e n Jews w e i e adapting to life in king

Communal

Service

d o m s and states that had as tbeii official

religions o n e o f Judaism's two d a u g h t e t
teligions, Chtistianity ot Islam. Recently
N o i m a n G o l b ( 1 9 8 7 ) o f the Univeisity o f
Chicago has shown that t h e eta o f active
Jewish conveisionism lasted m u c h l o n g e i
than has been suspected. H e concludes
that "we may peiceive, ftom t h e vatiety o f
texts available, that Jewish proselytism in
the early Middle Ages was a p h e n o m e n o n
that can be ttaced ftom the n i n t h century
onwards, and seems to have leached its
apogee in the eleventh centuiy" ( G o l b ,
1 9 8 7 , p . 3 6 ) . N o t a few o f these conveits
whose stories have c o m e d o w n to us in
Jewish and Christian chionicles wete
monks attiacted to the Jewish faith
because o f theii study o f t h e O l d Testa
m e n t ; they then settled in Muslim lands
w h e i e conveision from Chtistianity to
Judaism was not prohibited (although
conversion from Islam to Judaism was).
O n the basis o f the materials in tbe Caiio
G e n i z a h , G o l b ( 1 9 8 7 ) goes so fat as to
estimate that 1 5 , 0 0 0 m e n a n d w o m e n fled
Europe to b e c o m e Jewish conveits in t h e
Islamic wotld between 1 0 0 0 a n d i i o o .
There was also conveision to Judaism on
the ffontiei between the u i b a n civilized
wotld and t b e barbaiian wilderness the
Judaizing o f the Khazais, a Tuikish p e o
ple living on the steppe ftontiei o f Eastem
Europe. In his careful analysis o f Hebrew
epistles p u i p o i t i n g to be a c o i i e s p o n d e n c e
b e t w e e n the Khazar king a n d ceitain
Spanish Jews, Golb concludes that "a genu
ine, widespread proselytized labbinic Juda
ism was implanted in Khazaria in the ninth
and tenth centuiies" (Golb, 1 9 8 7 , p . 4 7 ) .
If Jewish outreach remained vigorous
until the n t h century, h o w can w e ac
count for the petering o u t o f this extend
ed conversionist impulse in the H i g h Mid
dle Ages aftet 1 1 0 0 ? T o be sure, it h a d
been a capital crime since the f o u i t h cen
tuty for a Christian to convert to Judaism
in Christian lands (and a Muslim in Islamic
lands). D i d a tightening u p of the political
systems in t h e Christian Diaspora make it

Historical

Overview

noticeably less likely that a convert and his

Jewish mentors could avoid p u n i s h m e n t ?
D i d h e i g h t e n e d Christian aggtessiveness
against Jews from the thirteenth to fifteenth
ccntuties missionizing, public disputa
tions, social and economic segtegation, ex
propriation, and expulsions make Jewish
authodties featful of the ptactical conse
quences of encouraging or even c o n d o n i n g
conversion? Gershom Scholem repeatedly
argued that the Kabbalah was the major
e l e m e n t in preserving Jewish morale in the
eatly modern era when othet Jewish theolo
gies, such as Afistotelian philosophy, had
lost theif appeal. T h e Kabbalah fefers to
proselytes with respect, but ascribes a
second-class status to t h e m . D i d a mystical
distancing ftom the outside social world
contribute to banking the flames o f Jewish
proselytizing? In contrast to the Kabbalistic
conception that the Jewish p e o p l e occupy
a distinctly different metaphysical status
than othef peoples was the tendency among
some Jewish thinkers, especially from the
sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, to
view Christianity as a legitimately m o n o
theistic religion fof Gentiles rather than as
a fotm o f idolatry. D i d this tolerance also
inhibit the impulse to teach out?
In the foimation of the latet attitude,
pethaps the most ctucial long-fange issue
is the fole o f ethnicity, so powerful a force
in maintaining Jewish consciousness. Yet,
ethnicity is, in tbe last analysis, a variable
and nor a constant: not only its intensity
but also its natute and pafameters differ
from age to age and land to land. W e f e
Jews o f the eafly m o d e r n era, especially in
Easrern Europe, that m u c h m o t e ethnical
ly self-aware because o f the natufe of theif
social and linguistic distinctiveness (a view
articulated by s o m e Jewish histofians)?
H o w great a role did ethnicity play in
eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Jewish
atdtudes to outreach, or does the c o m
bination o f c o n d n u e d legal p f o h i b i d o n s ,
anti-Semitic attitudes, and social stigma
consutute a sufficient explanadon for the
felatively few proselytes w h o appeaf in the

histotical record? ( O n e s h o u l d n o t e , how

evef, that conversions to Judaism continue
to occur regularly in every century d o w n
to modern times.)

OUTREACH IN MODERN JEWRY

A thitd area o f questions concefns the mix
o f factors affecting outfeach in m o d e t n
Western Jewfy in the n i n e t e e n t h and
twentieth centuries. W e seem to be enter
ing a new era o f Jewish proselytizing,
fesembling the Hellenistic and R o m a n eras
and the early Middle A g e s , rather than
the centuries since. W h e n legal sanctions
against convetsion to Judaism ceased to
exist in Europe and the U n i t e d States, the
explosive fofce of m o d e r n anti-Semitism
continued to sustain the negative valence
o f Jewishness in the eyes o f many Gentiles
w h o m i g h t have been attfacted to the Jew
ish religion. The nineteenth-centuty concept
o f the "Mission o f Istael," arriculated by
Refotm, N e o - O n h o d o x , and Positive-Histor
ical thinkets alike, provided a rationale fof
outfeach, but n o ptactical pfogram. Biting
C f i t i c i s m of the ethefcal notion of a posi
tive yet passive mission in the Diaspora to
spread pure ethical m o n o t h e i s m was one
of the motifs of Zionist thought at the
e n d o f the n i n e t e e n t h century. T h e social
idealism of Eastefn European Jewish ideol
ogies was grounded in the aspiradons of
secular nationalism and the goal o f collec
tive Jewish self-emancipation. Leaders of
political and cultuial Zionism and most
o t h e i fotms o f Jewish nationalism wete
agnostic, if not actually antiieligious, so
that fotmal teligious conversion did not
find a place o n their agenda of issues. In
effect, i t did not exisr for t h e m .
Militant secularism has disappeared, but
the Zionist tevolution within m o d e m
Jewty has resulted in a far more positive
evaluation o f the rich texture o f Jewish
histoiical cultuie than a m o n g m o d e m
nineteenth-centuiy Jews. In genetal,
A m e i i c a n cultute since the 1960s has ex
hibited a m o t e appieciative attitude to

/ Joumal of Jewish Communal Service

ethnic e l e m e n t s in personal identity, to
ttadition as such, and to the virtues o f
religious faith. Clearly, the precipitating
cause leading to a shift in Jewish attitudes
has b e e n the swift tise in t h e rate of intetmarriage. Contempotary intermarriage,
which can be viewed as a sign o f tbe social
acceptability o f Jews a m o n g Gentiles, is a
threat to Jewish survival, to be sure. But
as Egon Mayer (1985, p . L86) has p o i n t e d
o u t , "Intetmatriage itself rarely leads to
assimilation" b u t to a variety o f patterns.
Intermarriage may bold an opportunity all
its o w n because it creates, like t h e sebom
inoi o f t h e Hellenistic and R o m a n eras, a
p o p u l a t i o n that contains individuals w h o
are gradually Judaizing. T h e context for
born Jews a n d potential new Jews, thetefore, has shifted drastically since the late
1940s. W e r e it n o t for frictions between
the Jewish religious d e n o m i n a t i o n s in the
Diaspota a n d blatant hostility of teligious
authorities in Istael to Refotm a n d Conseivative J u d a i s m , w e w o u l d be well into a
n e w historic era of outreach. I n d e e d , even
with these frictions and hostilities we
probably have entered this n e w era.
T h e necessary, if n o t t h e sufficient, ele
m e n t of t h e novel situation we face today
is n o t intermarriage in itself, b u t rising i n
termarriage at a time w h e n the essential
differences between Jews-by-Birth and Jewsby-Choice are disappearing. In our American
m i l i e u , t h e vast majority o f Jews are Jewsby-Choice in o n e way or another. T h e iner
tia o f ttaditionalist culture and t h e force
o f anti-Semitism will n o t suffice to m a i n
tain the Jewishness o f most Diaspota Jews.
Living Jewishly means deciding to be Jew
ish in s o m e meaningful wayparticipating
in Jewish affairs, determining to cieate a
Jewish h o m e , c o m m i t t i n g oneself to t h e
acquisition o f Jewish learning in a syna
g o g u e education program or in Jewish
studies courses at a university or in s o m e
other m a n n e r . T h e crucial decision can oc
cur at almost any time in one's mature
years a n d is n o t unlike an adult conversion
experience. If being Jewish is more in

dividualized, voluntary, and self-determined

than ever before, t h e situation o f the Jewby-Choice is n o longer the exception b u t
the rule. T h e contemporary challenge,
t h e n , to our m o v e m e n t s a n d our leaders is
to respond i n an appropriately nuanced
manner to adapt Judaism to the changes
that history, especially m o d e r n history,
continues to force o n us.
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the talmudic period. New York: KTAV
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Biblical Archeological Review. (1986).
September/October, 72;5.
Braude, William B. {i<).i,o). Jewish proselytism
in the first five centuries of the common era;
The age of the tannaim and amoraim.
Providence, RI: Brown University Press,
1940.

Golb, Norman (I'^^-j). Jewish proselytismA

phenomenon in the religious history of early
medieval Europe. Tenth annual Rabbi Louis
Feinbeig Memorial Lecture. Cincinnati:
Judaic Studies Program of the University of
Cincinnati.
Golb, Notman, & Ptitsak, O. (1981). Khazarian
Hebrew documents of the tenth century.
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Kaufmann, Yehezkel. ( 1 9 7 0 ) . The Babylonian
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Mayer, Egon. ( 1 9 S 3 ) . Love and tradition:
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Great to Augustine of Hippo. London:
Oxford University Press.
Rosenbloom, Joseph R. (1978). Conversion to
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present. Cincinnati: Hebrew Union College
Press.
Seltzer, Robert M. ( 1 9 S S ) . Joining the Jewish
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Martin E. Marty & Frederick E. Greenspahn
(Eds.), Pushing the jaith: Proselytism and
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