SELECTED REFORM RESPONSA

found twenty-five converts in the responsa of the 12th and 13th centuries(B. Z. Wacholder,“Cases of Proselytizing in the Tosafist Responsa,” Jewish Quarterly Review, Vol. 51, pp. 288ff). A number of them were due to mixed marriages and were cited by Rabbenu Tam (Tos. to Ket. 3b; Yoma 82b) and Yehiel of Paris (Mordechai, San. 702: Toledot Adam Vehava 23.4). In addition, there were numerous converts among slaves of Jews , which in some cases involved sexual unions and concubinage. Social relationships, mixed marriage, and conversion remained a factor in Jewish life even in the most difficult periods of the Middle Ages. They led to conversions in both directions, with probably a larger number leaving Judaism than joining it. Any conversion could endanger the life of the convert his family, and in some instances the entire Jewish community(Jacob ben Moses, Maharil , 86b; J. R. Rosenblum, Conversion to Judaism, 741%).

The issue of convertiong for marriage is discussed at length by Caro and Joshua Falk in their commentaries to the Tur, Yoreh De-ah 268). Caro concludes that some proselytes who convert for the sake of marriage may, nevertheless, be sincere; all depended on the judgment of the court(hakol lefi re-ut beit din). Falk concludes that such conversion would be accepted bedi-avad. There are, therefore, good grounds in tradition for acceptng such converts.

Modern Times

Mixed marriages occurred with increasing frequeny beginning in the latter part of the 18th century. This was true in all lands of Western Europe and in the United States . Szajkowski has shown that such marriages occurred among the obscure and the prominent during the French Revolution (Z. Szajkowski, Op. Cit., pp. 826fF). Mixed marriagrs increased rapidly during the succeeding century as a number of careful studies have indicated(E. Schnurmann, La Population Juive en Alsace , pp. 87ff, N. Samter, Judentaufen im Neunzehnten Jahrhundert, pp. 86fF).