Posted on 09/21/2006 4:15:01 PM PDT by Nachum
NEW YORK - Christine Benvenuto embodies a Jewish ideal.
Her kitchen is kosher, she attends synagogue and has read rabbinic writings and Torah.
But for many American Jewish leaders, she has an even more compelling quality. The mother of three, whose husband was born Jewish, is a convert.
“A lot of things attracted me to Judaism,” said Benvenuto, whose book “Shiksa” chronicles her path to conversion and the choices of other non-Jewish spouses. “I grew up in a Jewish neighborhood in New York and my friends were always Jewish.”
As intermarriage continues at a high rate, many community leaders believe the survival of Judaism lies with people like Benvenuto. Over the last year, top rabbis have urged Jews to overcome their fear of offending non-Jewish spouses and suggest outright that they convert.
Rabbi Eric Yoffie, president of the Union for Reform Judaism, and Rabbi Jerome Epstein, executive vice president of the United Synagogue for Conservative Judaism, each called for a more assertive approach at national religious meetings of their movements in the last year. Together, their organizations represent about 75 percent of North American synagogue members.
The American Jewish Committee, a leading advocacy group based in New York, released the first major study in nearly two decades of why people decide to become Jewish. Among the central findings is that advocating for conversion works.
Even some Orthodox, who have traditionally discouraged conversion, have joined in.
Rabbi Leib Tropper, who runs a school in Monsey, N.Y., for Jews who lack basic religious education, started Eternal Jewish Family a year ago to train rabbinic courts on proper conversion for non-Jewish spouses. Tropper says hundreds of rabbis have attended the training sessions.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.bostonherald.com ...
Sounds a rather arrogant certitude.
Since we don't think there is any afterlife and do not believe in hell, we live our lives peacefully and happily free from this silliness. We also disbelieve in psychics, demon possession, channeling gurus, ancient texts written by goatherders, and similar irrational nonsense.
There is no rational or moral argument in support of hell. It's just superstition.
Thank you for reminding non-Jews that we don't believe the same way they do. As for converted spouses, I've always found them to be much more observant than their mates. Converting to Judaism is a difficult and long process.
I do suspect that the statement, if it is held as a belief by someone, would suggest to me that the person who thought their spouse was surely going to hell, would not have married the person to begin with.
But come now, I don't believe in hell except right here on earth, but I don't think we ought to engage in dissing one another's beliefs.
Next thing you know we will segue into circumcision,,,and believe me you don't want to see what happens on a thread that goes there.
I personally would hate being married to someone who thought I was for sure going to hell,,it would drive me nuts. But I would also hate to think people were going to hell who lived otherwise blameless lives. I don't much like the concept of hell, really.
Baptists do not agree with Catholics about the Pope; Methodists disagree with Presbyterians, Mormons disagree with Protestants, the Roman Catholic Church does not agree with Orthodox churches (at least 7 varieties). There are some 189 different denominations claiming to be Christian--Jehovah's Witnesses, Seventh Day Adventists, Mormons, Christian Scientists, Moonies, Roman Catholics, Armenians, Assembly of God, United Church of Christ, Church of Christ (maybe not united?), Calvary Church, Church of the Nazarene, Epicopalians, Anglicans, Lutherans, Free Baptist, Southern Baptist, Northern Baptist, True Faith Baptist, Congregationals, Calvanist, Reformed, Free Presbyterian, not-so-free Presbyterians of the USA, Mennonites, Amish, United Brethern, Plymouth Brethern, Church of the Universal Triumphant, etc., etc., etc., etc. And each of these has a million or more believers who support their ministers, pastors, priests with free-will contributions.
Then there are the televangelists like Robertson, Falwell, Dobson, et al. who are most likely in it for the money. And then the denominationally unaffiliated "mega-churches" with power plays by preachers with Hollywood theatrics.
The schisms beween Christians are probably larger than the differences between humanists and Catholics.
If anyone thinks there is a single Christian outlook on salvation or a single Christian view of God, they are clearly nuts.
Even on the matter of separation of church and state, there are huge differences. Many denominations are staunch supporters of very strict separation--Baptists historically, Seventh Day Adventists, Christian Scientists, Moonies, Unitarians, Presbyterians (one branch), and almost all Jewish congregations (Reformed, Conservative, Orthodox--but not the Luddovite and ultra-orthodox congregations); Amish, Mennonites, Congregationalists, ...
Those seeking government support of religion include Catholics who want tax-payer support for their parochial schools, some evangelicals who want their faith to be given favored status in schools---and a whole lot of politicians who want to wrap the flag and the cross around themselves for public displays of piety to win elections. As written in Matthew 6, there are many hypocrites and many forms of hypocrisy.
Jews have generally been strong supporters of the First Amendment.
Or whether there is any group who are "God's Chosen People".
Lets not go there.
I investigated conversion a while ago and was sort of stopped in my tracks at some point. I think I am simply irreligious.
One of my daughters and son in law are Unitarians I do believe. At their wedding my husband was hilarious,,he kept whispering to me "are they getting married", "is this a wedding". The minister talked about the environment and My husband kept asking me "are they pagans perhaps"
He so cracked me up.
Jews don't believe that if you're not Jewish, you go to hell. Actually, if you ask 3 Jews what exactly happens in the afterlife, you're libel to get 4 or 5 answers, at the very least...
Mark
Being able to buy wholesale!
Mark
It's a difficult thing to believe. But if one does believe that it happened, as I do, it would be impossible to "convert" to any faith that denies it.
Expanding on that, The Lord holds those who are "more pious" to even higher standards: Remember that Moses was not allowed into the Promised Land, because he didn't follow The Lords instructions properly.
The greater the faith, the greater the obligation.
Mark
Ah, the Jewish fatwah.
The scriptural fundamentalist mindset is the same world-over.
Hardly! Marriage in religion is designed around the family, and raising of children. When Jews and non-Jews intermarry, it's seen as threatening the spiritual life of the family, and of the children to come. To put it bluntly, it's hard enough to have a family when the spiritual fabric is the same between spouses. Intermarriage just adds more complexity to the marriage, and frankly, will confuse the children. Orthodox Rabbis will not perform a marriage ceremony between intermarrying couples, and many Conservative Rabbis will refuse as well.
But there's nothing even approaching a "fatwah."
This guy dumped his Jewish wife (and 4 kids) for a hot shiksa, whom he converted, of course.
Flame suit on...
What's the difference between Jewish girls and the Bermuda Triangle?
The Bermuda Triangle swallows seamen.
And yes, I'm Jewish.
Talk about arrogant certitude...
That is somewhat disappointing. Seems like it's more like a philosophy, then, rather than a religion.
Jews believe in reward and punishment in the afterlife. As far as what Christians think of as "Hell," it is reserved only for the most extremely evil, such as Pharoah, Bilaam, Hitler, Stalin.
For the moderately sinful, there is "purgatory" (sometimes reincarnation) for sins and then eternal rewards for good deeds.
It is a "merit system," there is no "affirmative action" in the afterlife.
Book of Ruth.
See also Ezra chapter 9.
I was under the impression Jews did not believe in an afterlife.
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