CONVERSION IN REFORM HALAKHAH

rabbinic conferences and synods. There were some discussions of conversion and the methods appropriate for it in Jewish periodicals,” but this paper will look in that direction. When the issue surfaced at rabbinic meetings, we will find the debate raging over the ritual rather than the substance of conversion.

This paper is divided into two segments; the first will summarize the Reform position as expressed through synods, conferences, and responsa. The second section will analyze these developments and seek the rationale behind them.

European Rabbinic Conference

At the meeting in Braunschweig (1846), the assembled delegates dealt with the subject of mixed marriage. They gave religious recognition to mixed marriages and thus, went further than the Sanhedrin of Napoleon. However, this was done

inadvertently as they had not remembered the Sanhedrin’s statement accurately and merely sought to reiterate it. Those who had voted for change did so under the assumption that the state would permit all children of such a marriage to be raised as Jews.*

At the rabbinic convention which met in Frankfurt in July of 1845, a great many issues were discussed, but mixed marriage and conversion were not among them. The convention held in Breslau in July of 1846 also largely turned to other matters, however, the radical Holdheim suggested that rabbis officiate at the marriage of Jews and non-Jews .’ In Leipzig in 1869, a number of questions which dealt with offsprings of mixed marriage were introduced. The main item on the agenda was the question whether an uncircumcised boy of a Jewish mother could be considered as Jewish ; this was decided positively and traditional sources were cited. The first longer discussion in the matter of status therefore dealt with a single ritual issue rather than a broader philosophical

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