04/22/2004: "A different perspective on "Jewish outreach""

The Jewish Week of New York has an interesting article about a young woman who's converting to Judaism. She was raised Presbyterian, and says she was "once born-again," but actually displays little understanding of what Christian faith is about. Like many if not most converts, she's doing it mostly because she's marrying someone Jewish. You can read more of her story at the link. By far the most interesting part of the story for me was this paragraph:

In the Reform movement, which recently eclipsed Conservative as the largest American Jewish stream and since 1978 has had a stated policy of outreach to non-Jews, no formal research has been done on "Jews by choice." However, there is a perception in the movement that conversion has been on the rise in recent years, so much so that in 1998 the Union of American Hebrew Congregations (now known as the Union for Reform Jews) created an "outreach fellows" program to train lay people to help rabbis prepare potential Jews for their conversion and welcome them into the synagogue community. So far, 150 Reform congregants have trained in the program.

Please understand: I find nothing wrong in this, and think it's fine and dandy for Reform Judaism to reach out to non-Jews. I assume this is done in a non-coercive, non-threatening fashion that respects individual freedom and simply presents the potential convert with an opportunity to consider another possible way of relating to God and His creation. Terrific.

But if it's OK for Reform Judaism to conduct "outreach to non-Jews" (most of whom, in the US, will have at least some background in Christianity), it has to be OK for Christians to conduct outreach to non-Christians, at least some of whom will be Jews. I'm well aware of the history of forced conversions, and any Christian outreach to Jews had better keep it in mind, too. But let's face it�Southern Baptists asking if you know where you'll spend eternity if you die tonight are hardly chomping at the bit to revive the Spanish Inquisition. There's no need for some Jewish leaders to bewail every evangelism campaign that seeks Jewish converts to Christianity as a renewal of the Holocaust, as long as Christians play fair and respectfully, and remember the rules of the game�they are allowed to try to convert you, too.