AFTER SEEING THIS MOVIE I WANNA BE A JEW
what do i have to do to be a jew?
shareConvert.
shareFind a rabbi...start taking classes...
Generally speaking it's not like Christianity where you can often just go into a church get baptized and ta-da you're a Christian. Conversion to Judaism takes a lot longer-- particularly to Orthodoxy. It could take over a year.
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I have friends who are African American converts to Judaism.
There is some racism among certain segments of Jewry, but it is not officially mandated. Insulting a convert is in fact considered a sin in Judaism.
It should be noted that even Jews-from-birth are not necessarily "white." Ethiopian Jews are black, and many Jews from Middle Eastern communities are quite dark-skinned. Visiting Israel can be an eye opener for those who think of Jews as a white people.
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You can't make the generalization that they aren't accepted by Israelis period. Some accept them; some don't. They have faced racism, just as blacks in the U.S. have, but it is not anywhere near universal. And yes, they are definitely black, according to most definitions of the term (though they do have some Semitic features). Here are some photos and you can judge for yourself:
http://www.maksam.org
http://cache.viewimages.com/xc/1850143.jpg?v=1&c=ViewImages&k= 2&d=17A4AD9FDB9CF1939057D9939C83F106D5C95002D02368A35A5397277B4DC3 3E
http://www.studentstruggle.org/imgs/Img_2537.jpg
Judaism, like Islam, takes a very strong will and commitment. It isn't just something that you should get into because a movie makes it look interesting. Take some time to look into it and research the numerous facets of Judaism before making a decision to convert. Btw, my synagoge has numerous people who converted, from many different cultures. This is surprising since it is against Jewish practice and belief to promote conversion or try to force it on others.
shareDid'nt Sammy Davis Jr convert to Judaism?
shareI thought, in order to be considered a proper Jew, your mother had to be Jewish? Or is that only required for Israeli citizenship..?
shareWell yeah, if you consider yourself a Jew by blood, then it would imply that your mother is Jewish. But one can convert and still be considered just as Jewish as anyone else.
share[deleted]
I am not from a religious family of any kind, true. However, I know people who have converted that also said it was very easy to do so. Also, I know people who went into a church and came out "officially baptized as a Christian" within 15 minutes, just to see how quickly it could be done.
I suppose I should have qualified my statement by acknowledging that it's probably different between denominations. Also, I wasn't talking about people being raised as Christians, I was talking about people converting at some point or other.
Now, to comment on the main discussion at hand, once a person converts, he or she is considered as Jewish as anyone who was born Jewish. I don't think Torah has any concept of race in terms of skin color, etc. though obviously certain individuals and/or communities may have their own prejudices. They are not from the religion so much as being simply from the mainstream attitudes that have unfortunately had a strong hold on our world for a very long time. Another thing to note, in my understanding anyway, is that, traditionally speaking, once you become a Jew (or if you are born one), there is no going back. A Gentile soul can become Jewish, but a Jewish soul cannot become Gentile.
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The way you put that... "I know people who went into a church and came out 'officially baptized as a Christian' within 15 minutes, just to see how quickly it could be done" sounds ridiculous.
Same with the person who wrote "Generally speaking it's not like Christianity where you can often just go into a church get baptized and ta-da you're a Christian. Conversion to Judaism takes a lot longer-- particularly to Orthodoxy. It could take over a year."
I've been involved in the initiation process of many people who have chosen to become Christian (as adults) and they have all participated in a deep and meaningful journey in finding their faith. Without this process and reflection over months/years they wouldn't have convinced the parish priest why they want to become Christian and wouldn't be eligible/wanted (for lack of better words).
If the place they went to converted them so hastily then I guess that chirch must have been taken advantage of by someone feigning genuine respect and interest.
And to someone who mentioned "Judaism, like Islam, takes a very strong will and commitment. It isn't just something that you should get into because a movie makes it look interesting." I agree, for sure. But this is not limited to these two religions. As someone from a family of Christians / Muslims I genuinely believe that every faith has intense commitment and worship involved at its core. (Although, unfortunately, every faith also has those who don't follow so closely.) Any given Jewish Rabbi or Muslim Shaik most likely has an intense spirital devotion and from firsthand experience I see this quality reflected in Christian priests as well (as I'm sure anyone of faith outside of these three religions would echo). That's my point.
lol, just go with atheism or agnosticism, it is the only way to perceive the world off of known truth. Everything else requires faith, therefore some level of ignorance.
shareyou wrote exactly what i wanted to write!! nice post bro,,cant stand the "my religion is this and best .and others is fake" something that many jews have!!
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I doubt you'll see this mrredman25, as it is many years after you posted this, but when I was little a baptist friend of mine took me to church with her one day. After literally an hour or so of sermon they were asking any guests to go up and be baptized, and all of the adults around me were pressuring me to go up and do it. So, maybe in the churches you're familiar with they have a rigorous conversion process, I just wanted to let you know the people who said it can be done in fifteen minutes are also right, as there are some churches that are like that. And as a little ten year old girl, I definitely was not taking advantage of the poor church, they were taking advantage of me. Don't worry, I did not convert, and also I was never invited back. This family also told me my father who was dead all of three months was in hell because he wasn't baptist (not even just not christian, specifically not baptist) and that the only way to save his soul was to convert.
share"i assume u are not christian so i will ignore ur ignorance...... generally most parents baptize their children as babies and raise them christian, but the parents have to belong to the church. later on in life a teenager will take classes and such for conformation and that brings u to become educated with christianity! i understand that you and not a christian so u dont know exactly what goes on, but before u go and say things like that u may want to do some checking first."
Holy smokes. Talk about ignorance! Maybe in YOUR church! Surely you are
aware that there are OTHER churches than the one you were baptized into?
If only babies could be Christians, I hardly think there would be over 2
BILLION of them on earth (1 Billion being Catholics, who also offer conversion
services).
And did you ever hear of the art of spelling, and the correct use
of capital letters? You really don't make a good case about ignorance
vs. non-ignorance the way you communicate in writing yourself.
I'm Jewish and apparently know a lot more about Christian conversion than
you do. You don't get out much, do you...
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"Well yeah, if you consider yourself a Jew by blood, then it would imply that your mother is Jewish. But one can convert and still be considered just as Jewish as anyone else."-------------
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that's true. in fact, orthodox jews state in their prayers that converts need to be treated like any other jew.
That's in order to be a "JBB," Jew-by-birth. Converts are also given Israeli citizenship. =)
sharethey are not,,especially in israel,,but the hazars jews are white mostly as they come from kavkasian tribe
share[deleted]
Here's an one year later answer:
I have no idea to what branch of Christianity you're refereing to, but I'm almost willing to bet it's a sect, because it's not that easy to become a christian. At least in the catholic church, unless your parents are catholic, were married by the church (though some priest don't require that last bit) and they decide to have baptised, that bit can be easy, but you still have to have a confirmation later, after several months of study, so you'll be allowed to take part in the comungation. Then you need another and a second baptism (which I have no idea what's called in english), all with a lot of studying. If you convert to Catholicism and weren't born into it, then you have to study a lot until you're allowed to be baptised.
Anyway, back to the OP's question:
Seriously, how do you convert? I'm portuguese, like the OP and here religion is like... 90% of the population claim to be catholic but no one goes to the church and half of them still celebrate pagan festivities. So judaism here is like something interesting to talk about that's going on in the new soap opear on TVI (a channel) and that's it.
I've been studying about it progressive judaism and it interests me a lot, but I'm pretty sure the sinagogues here are the more conservative ones. Can I ask an orthodox rabi to help me convert to progressive judaism?
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