Religion: Jewish Convert

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Jewry does not seek converts. It even discourages those few non-Jews who seek to join. Nevertheless, as sometimes happens, Jewry was petitioned in Warsaw by a Roman Catholic named Antoni-Stefan Raczynski. The Warsaw Rabbinate refused the application, was backed by the Minister of Education who cited a Tsarist ukase of 1905 granting religious liberty save to native Christians who wished to adopt non-Christian faiths. But Pan (Mr.) Raczynski appealed his case to the Supreme Administrative Tribunal at Warsaw, which three weeks ago reversed the previous decisions. Let the Rabbinate admit Pan Raczynski. The Tsarist ukase, said the Tribunal, meant "Greek Orthodox" when it said "Christian." Hence any Roman Catholic, Protestant, Buddhist or whatnot might become a Jew if he wished.

Last week The American Jewish World viewed the conversion of Pan Raczynski as a "strange case." It said: "For centuries it was considered [by civil authorities] a crime for Jews to accept a Christian convert. At certain periods in history, it constituted a capital crime. Now we have a decision of a Supreme Tribunal whose members are probably all Catholics, denying to the Rabbinate the legal right to refuse a Catholic conversion to Judaism. Verily, the world does change!"

Even though conversion has ceased to be a crime, Judaism takes pains to point out to a would-be convert that it prefers to maintain the racial purity of its faith, that its outlook is difficult for a goy to adopt. One finds religious satisfaction best in one's own group. Unlike Christians, Jews do not seek to save the world. They are satisfied that the souls of righteous men will be taken care of, no matter what their faith.* If, however, a non-Jew is determined to embrace Judaism, and if no ulterior motive (such as intermarriage) is evident, he may be accepted by local rabbis, whose decision is, as far as Jewry is concerned, final.

Only recorded instance of forcible conversion to Jewry occurred in the 2nd Century B.C., when John Hyrcanus, an early Maccabaean leader, in spite of protests from the rabbis, converted the idolatrous Idumeans. In 740 A.D. the Khazar dynasty in southern Russia, originally pagan, became Jewish. Their kingdom was wiped out in 1016. Aquila, supposedly related to Emperor Hadrian, became a Jew, translated the Old Testament into Greek. A contemporary convert is French, Catholic-born Poet Aimé Pallière.