Conversion

'Kotsuji's Gift': The Japanese scholar who rescued Jewish refugees during World War II - review

The picture is cropped. A Japanese man standing to one side has been cut away. That man is Kotsuji, and the book is the long work of putting him back.

|ByRAFFI CROUSE
A JEWISH GIRL and her Chinese friends in the Shanghai Ghetto, 1945, from the collection of the Shanghai Jewish Refugees Museum.
A GREEK Orthodox priest holds up a bible during the Holy Friday service at the Greek Orthodox Monastery of St George in Coptic Cairo on May 3, 2024.

Christian converts still face discrimination, arrests in Egypt, US State Dept. confirms

American estimates suggest that around 10% of Egypt’s population was Christian as of 2022, though the exact figures are difficult to gather, as noted by the report.

|ByDANIELLE GREYMAN-KENNARD
A general view of Jerusalem's Old City shows the Western Wall, Judaism's holiest site, in the foreground as the Dome of the Rock, located on the compound known to Muslims as Noble Sanctuary and to Jews as Temple Mount, is seen in the background.

Grapevine, May 29, 2026: Meaningful conversation

Movers and shakers in Israeli society

|ByGREER FAY CASHMAN
THE EXPECTATION that citizens should roam the length and breadth of the country in order to find an appointment slot somewhere to renew a passport is preposterous.

Proposed Law of Return amendment sparks debate over conversion standards in Israel

Religious coalition lawmakers frame the bill as a return to halachic conversion standards, while opponents say it would hand the religious establishment greater control over Jewish identity

|ByGABRIEL COLODRO/THE MEDIA LINE

Sephardic Jewish ancestry certificate now open for millions of applicants

Recent research has demonstrated that as many as 200 million people in the Americas and Europe have Jewish ancestry who were forcibly converted.

SEPTEMBER 18, 2022ByZVIKA KLEIN
Certificate of Sephardi Jewish ancestry.

Are too many Germans converting to Judaism? - analysis

In a DW column titled “Why the increasing number of converts is a problem for Judaism,” Avitall Gerstetter charged that too many people in Germany convert for the wrong reasons.

SEPTEMBER 7, 2022ByTOBY AXELROD/JTA
The German flag is pictured at the Reichstag building in Berlin, Germany, November 7, 2017

Conversion in Israel: The tug of war between the state, rabbinate

How did conversion to Judaism get caught in up the midst of an Israeli political controversy over the Law of Return and identifying who is a Jew?

AUGUST 27, 2022ByRAPHAEL SHUCHAT
A WOMAN stands before the rabbinical court.

Cardinal with Jewish ancestry honors Jewish-born nun murdered in Auschwitz

Born Edith Stein in Breslau, Germany to an Orthodox Jewish family, Stein converted to Catholicism in her 30s.

AUGUST 11, 2022ByJACKIE HAJDENBERG/JTA
THE GATE to Auschwitz, photographed in January 2021, 76 years after the camp’s liberation: There are still countless Jews who say about the Shoah, ‘If this could happen, how can anyone still believe in God?’

The journey from Jewish convert to accomplished artist, scribe

Neriah Israel's journey from South Africa to Dimona

JUNE 16, 2022ByBRADLEY MARTIN
Neriah Israel writing a page of a Sefer Torah scroll.

'Covenant': Creating a Jewish conversion spectrum - review

Turning some of Rabbi Soloveitchik’s ideas toward resolving the Jewish identity crisis

JUNE 11, 2022BySHUKI FRIEDMAN
REFORM JEWS hold up broken hearts as they demonstrate outside the Knesset in 1997 against pending legislation by ultra-religious parties to tighten their grip on conversion issues.

The irony of Jewish conversion in Israel - opinion

"They want mass conversion. This won’t happen," Rabbi Yosef said about the deputy religious affairs minister.

JUNE 8, 2022BySETH FARBER
SEPHARDI CHIEF RABBI Yitzhak Yosef speaks out at a rally in Jerusalem against conversion and kashrut reforms, in January.

Shira Ben Avraham's spiritual 'Journey' to Judaism, motherhood

“It’s a collection of songs that were written as part of this journey that I’ve been on for the past, say, 10 years, that really started in South Africa where I grew up.”

MAY 30, 2022ByBEN BRESKY
SHIRA BEN AVRAHAM in the Nahlaot neighborhood.

Judaism must learn to welcome outsiders to its traditions - opinion

Non-Jewish people should be able to explore Jewish traditions and elements without having to commit to converting.

MAY 21, 2022ByBENJAMIN SPRATT, JOSHUA STANTON
Ambassadors and senior diplomats join Israeli Ambassador to the UN Danny Danon at a mock Passover seder

Israel grants basketball player Jared Armstrong temporary residence

The decision has temporarily ended a months-long saga of rejections, petitions from influential figures and accusations of racism.

MAY 9, 2022ByANDREW LAPIN/JTA
Jared Armstrong, left, on a Birthright Israel trip in 2021. Armstrong, a basketball player who had received an offer to play for an Israeli club team, petitioned the Israeli government for citizenship for months.