Can You Become A Jew?

[pat22]

can you become a Jew? like be baptized one or something? I hear you have to have a Jewish mother, is this true?

[Cam42]

[quote name='pat22' post='1844059' date='Apr 22 2009, 08:36 PM']can you become a Jew? like be baptized one or something? I hear you have to have a Jewish mother, is this true?[/quote]

It depends on what you're defintion of Jew is. You're asking two distinct questions I think.

From the first point of view, to be an ethnic Jew (part of the diaspora) one needs to have lineage which is from parentage.

From the second point of view, to be a religious Jew and ascribe to Judaism, sure, one can convert and accept the Jewish religion. Personally, I don't know why one would, the Messiah has already come, according to my take on things. But yes, one can convert to Judaism.

[CatherineM]

[quote]Who is a Jew?

A Jew is any person whose mother was a Jew or any person who has gone through the formal process of conversion to Judaism.

It is important to note that being a Jew has nothing to do with what you believe or what you do. A person born to non-Jewish parents who has not undergone the formal process of conversion but who believes everything that Orthodox Jews believe and observes every law and custom of Judaism is still a non-Jew, even in the eyes of the most liberal movements of Judaism, and a person born to a Jewish mother who is an atheist and never practices the Jewish religion is still a Jew, even in the eyes of the ultra-Orthodox. In this sense, Judaism is more like a nationality than like other religions, and being Jewish is like a citizenship. See What Is Judaism?

This has been established since the earliest days of Judaism. In the Torah, you will see many references to "the strangers who dwell among you" or "righteous proselytes" or "righteous strangers." These are various classifications of non-Jews who lived among Jews, adopting some or all of the beliefs and practices of Judaism without going through the formal process of conversion and becoming Jews. Once a person has converted to Judaism, he is not referred to by any special term; he is as much a Jew as anyone born Jewish.

Although all Jewish movements agree on these general principles, there are occasional disputes as to whether a particular individual is a Jew. Most of these disputes fall into one of two categories.

First, traditional Judaism maintains that a person is a Jew if his mother is a Jew, regardless of who his father is. The liberal movements, on the other hand, consider a person to be Jewish if either of his parents was Jewish and the child was raised Jewish. Thus, if the child of a Jewish father and a Christian mother is raised Jewish, the child is a Jew according to the Reform movement, but not according to the Orthodox movement. On the other hand, if the child of a Christian father and a Jewish mother is not raised Jewish, the child is a Jew according to the Orthodox movement, but not according to the Reform movement! The matter becomes even more complicated, because the status of that children's children also comes into question.

Second, the more traditional movements do not always acknowledge the validity of conversions by the more liberal movements. The more modern movements do not always follow the procedures required by the more traditional movements, thereby invalidating the conversion. In addition, Orthodoxy does not accept the authority of Conservative, Reform and Reconstructionist rabbis to perform conversions, and the Conservative movement has debated whether to accept the authority of Reform rabbis.[/quote]

[url="http://www.jewfaq.org/whoisjew.htm"]Source[/url]

[track2004]

My ex converted. Most people become reform Jews, I'm not sure if you can covert to Orthodox Judaism.

[Winchester]

Yes, I can become a Jew.

[AdesteFidelis]

[quote name='track2004' post='1844437' date='Apr 23 2009, 12:43 PM']My ex converted. Most people become reform Jews, I'm not sure if you can covert to Orthodox Judaism.[/quote]

One can. Orthodox rabbis don't always (if ever) accept the conversions of those to Conservatism or Reform as valid, however.

[pat22]

good I didn't know all this.