CONVERSION IN REFORM HALAKHAH
The question of gerut and matters related to it have been
peripheral to Judaism during most of the last fifteen hundred years. The early history has been the subject of many studies.’ Although there was considerable Talmudic discussion as well as a minor tractate on the subject, it became less important after the Council of Nicaea which prohibited conversion to Judaism in Christian lands, and somewhat later in other countries. It was dangerous to seek converts. The issue of conversion to Judaism became theoretical, although a small number of individuals joined us through the ages. They were conspicuous and have often been recorded for that reason. The great codes of Alfasi, Maimonides , Caro, and others who wrote earlier, only dealt with the subject in a brief summary fashion.
Conversion has become important again since the Emancipation, although our first concern was conversion from Judaism to Christianity . In this period, conversion to Judaism once more became possible without incurring religious or civil penalty. Some initial discussion was stirred by the Napoleonic Sanhedrin (1806) in which the French government asked the Jewish community about the status of marriages between Jews and nonJews. Although this question did not deal with conversion, it meant that the issue of family status was given new significance. The Sanhedrin provided an answer which dealt with the question ina satisfactory manner both from the French and Jewish point of view.
It stated that such marriages were considered binding civilly. They could not be invested with religious meaning, but they should also not evoke a herem(ban). This entire matter, of course, was difficult for the Assembly.> The discussions on similar issues which followed did not deal with the question of gerut as that might have been dangerous. It was not to become important until the second portion of the century when it was the subject of debate at various