10. Could a non-Jew become a Jew other than by proselytization? No.
11. Differences in Israel and abroad: my personal judgment is that proselytization should be made easier in Israel because the whole environment is Jewish and it is almost inevitable that a home in which one member is a convert will be a truly Jewish home.
12. Is Judaism a nationality or a religion or both? The question would make more sense in eastern Europe than in the western democratic countries. In eastern Europe as, for example, in Soviet Russia , historic groups are considered separate nationalities. In western democratic nations each person is an individual. A nation comprises individuals of equal status, with no separate grouping of
nationalities.
Nevertheless, our sense of historic unity and our brotherly bond with the State of Israel is deep and real. The best description of Judaism according to the feeling of most Reform Jews is that we are a religion and a family, with all the intimate relationships that the word“family” implies. This is in accordance with the spirit of Jewish law. A convert is converted not merely to a religion, but to a real kinship. He or she may now marry a Jew and is always part of the Jewish family. In fact, the historic phrase that a convert is like a newborn child is an exact expression of somebody being
reborn(Yevamoth 22a).