Converts to Judaism by Lawrence J. Epstein

Author:Lawrence J. Epstein [Epstein, Lawrence J.]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: undefined
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
Published: 2012-02-05T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 6

The Golden Land

Converts in the United States

Jewish life in the United States evolved only slowly. Until the end of the nineteenth century, Jews were in large part reluctant to cross the wide ocean and come to the new land. They were afraid that in that strange and wondrous place they would lose their traditions. Orthodox rabbis warned them that in the New World, good Jews couldn’t keep kosher, that they would be forced to forsake the Sabbath. And so, while there were Jewish immigrants from Europe, they came in only small numbers until the assassination of the czar and the resulting legal restrictions and persecution joined the traditional reasons of poverty and lack of opportunity to create millions of immigrants. The reason this is important is that the small numbers of Jews meant that even with a relatively high intermarriage rate, the numbers were barely visible because the overall numbers were so low.

But while there were few Jews at first, from the beginning, they did make crucial contributions to American life, such as Haym Solomon’s loans to help finance the American Revolution. The Jews also made a small number of converts. But the converts they sometimes made came from a troubling source.

As did the rest of the country, Jews struggled with the question of slavery. A few were slaveholders, and some of these slaves were converted to Judaism. Indeed, their descendants formed some Jewish congregations. This act of owning and converting slaves was only part of the racism then present. In some cases, the black slaves from Africa were not welcome as converts. For example, in the year 1820, “The Holy Congregation of the House of God,” K.K. Beth Elohim in Charleston, South Carolina, adopted a new constitution for their synagogue. The constitution noted that the congregation would not encourage proselytes but also would not interfere with making them. The congregation wanted documentation about the legality of the conversion if new members wished to join. But, the constitution continued, “people of color” would not be accepted as converts.

The United States was still being influenced by the negative European Jewish attitudes toward converts. There was, for example, the decision in 1834 by Rabbi Akiba Eger the Younger, the Jewish religious leader in Posen, that Jews were not allowed to accept converts. The changes came, starting in England with Grace Aguilar, a novelist. She wrote a series of letters in 1842 titled The Jewish Faith: Its Spiritual Consolation, Moral Guidance and Immortal Hope. The letters, optimistic in tone, went back to the belief in Judaism’s unique greatness as a religion and in the ultimate spiritual destiny of humanity to embrace the Jewish faith.

American Jews were still finding their footing. On September 15, 1825, for example, Mordecai Manuel Noah, a playwright, politician, and diplomat, tried to establish Ararat, a Jewish nation on Grand Island, near Buffalo, New York. The project achieved no success, as Jews rejected it. No one even recognized the radical nature of Noah’s project. It is often seen only

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