WITHOUT MILAH AND TEVILAH
Richard Rosenthal
1892 the C.C.A.R. decided to accept proselytes"without
any initiatory rite, ceremony or observance whatever." This significant decision by the Conference came after several years of extensive debate. Isaac M. Wise had first raised the issue in the Philadelphia Conference of 1869; it was discussed at the Pittsburgh Conference in 1885; there were also two separate public discussions of the issue, one raised by Moritz Spitz in 1878 and by Henry Berkowitz in 1890. In this paper, I will look at this process of decision making as an examination of the making of liberal halakhah.
Reform Jewish practice has followed the 1892 decision for almost a hundred years. For many of us, perhaps still the majority, it remains as the rule by which we bring people into Judaism . The decision is a fascinating one from several different perspectives. Why did it take several decades to make the decision when the rabbis could set aside all of kashrut with a subordinate clause in the Pittsburgh Platform? Yet, conversion is a unique process: one who is not Jewish is brought into the community. The rabbi acts as gatekeeper. It is a very serious role. It changes the status of the person. The Jewish community is larger than the Reform movement: how could the movement act for the entire Jewish community? The process of conversion must raise and attempt to answer questions about Jewish identity and community: What are we, what is essential belief, what is adequate and sincere adherence to Judaism ? The question of conversion is by its very nature a halakhic question because those who receive the convert must become, even against their will, a bet din who must say yes or no to the person who seeks admittance.