Converts Are God’s Gift to the Jewish People |
The Hollywood Museum will host a centennial celebration honoring Marilyn Monroe, who was one of the most famous Hollywood converts to Judaism, on Tuesday evening. This could not happen in Israel where more than 580,000 Israeli citizens today are not recognized as Jewish according to Halacha by the Chief Rabbinate, despite being part of Israeli society – serving in the army, speaking Hebrew, paying taxes, and tying their destiny to the Jewish state. For them, and for their relatives abroad, Israel offers citizenship but not full belonging. This is not merely a bureaucratic challenge. It is a crisis of identity.
Instead of addressing this challenge with courage, radicals on both the Right and the Left have turned conversion and aliyah into political weapons. On the Right, resistance to meaningful conversion reform has effectively closed the gates before those who seek to join the Jewish people in good faith. On the left conversion is treated as a threat rather than as an opportunity. The result is paralysis and alienation.
In America many people have lost faith in organized religion, yet according to recent data, they still love the Bible. As of September 2025, Bible sales were up 11% this year over 2024, part of a continuing boom in Bible sales.
All told, more than 18 million Bibles were sold this last year. “Bible sales have been steadily growing in the US since 2021 and have set unprecedented annual sales records since 2022,” Brenna Connor, an industry analyst at Circana BookScan. “2024 marked a 20-year high for Bible sales in the US, and 2025 surpassed these levels.”
I know of a person who said I wanted to convert to Reform Judaism for some years now. However, I heard that Reform Jewish converts will not be accepted by all denominations as “officially Jewish” unless they convert to Orthodox Judaism. Is this true?
The answer is No and Yes. No because the great majority of Jews are not Orthodox Jews. Yes because about 10-15% of Jews are Orthodox.
The 2022 PRRI survey of religion in America asked “Has there ever been a time when you thought about leaving your current religious tradition or denomination?” 24% of Mormons said yes, Protestants of color” and White Catholics, both` had 20% who said yes.
But only 11% of Black Protestants and 10% of Jews and members of non-Christian religions (e.g., Hinduism, Islam,........