I love it!

"something tells me being a black Jew in Southern Illinois is not going to be the most pleasant or easy experience."

I can tell you that growing up as a white Jew in Central Illinois was no picnic either. 

I was raised by parents who taught me that once someone converted, we were not to question their motives.  I was raised in a traditional shul headed by an orthodox rabbi that refused to do any conversions.  As such, I'm always surprised whenever I meet a convert.  Conversion is just not on my radar screen.  Can't really imagine why anybody would want to do that.  Everyone gets to go to heaven, so why give up Big Macs in the process?  Nevertheless, my grad school roomate grew up Protestant, converted to Judaism in high school, now wears peyes and has at least 6 kids these days.  So what the hell do I know about it?  If converting gives them a level of comfort they didn't have before, G-d bless them and keep them safe.

What do people think about the new National Council of Young Israel policy that no converts (or women) can serve as a shul presidents?  Why dont you blog that doozy Tamar?

This article made me smile and smile and smile. I live in Murray, Kentucky, but I'm from (and still go to temple) in Paducah, a scant 45 minutes away from Kay-ro, and frankly, I'm thrilled to hear about this.

Cairo used to have a fairly good-sized Jewish community actually, and when business started going downhill, they all moved off for greener pastures. I'm heartened to hear that a Jewish community has "returned."

To echo an earlier poster, may G-d indeed keep them safe.

I say bravo! Better to see them become Jewish than Muslim too.:-)

I say bravo! Better to see them become Jewish than Muslim too.:-)

stop looking for the dark clouds underneath every silver lining.

American Jews never cease to amaze me. They consider themselves yet they are afraid of every sign of change even when it's change in a positive direction.

The post about Mare Winningham's conversion was equally full of little snide remarks. Why can't we accept that there are many people out there who would like to become Jews?

One reasone could be that being so skeptical about our faith we don't believe that anyone else could be passionate about it. Another reason could be that we afraid of change.

Do the Cairo Illinois folks have a Jewish consciousness yet? Of course not. All converts bring their background to the new faith. Give them time and they will adjust. They will also have to learn to deal with anti-Jewish feelings out there. Something tells me though that as Black folk they are already a lot about bigotry.

Bless them and let's give them a positive welcome and stop kvetching, Tamar. 

btw: Cairon Illinois was also the place were Huckleberry Finn and Jim tried to cross into freedom and failed. I am glad that Jim's descendants are free at last. Free to make their own spiritual destiny.

A meaningless affectation of Judaism Lite, also known as Reform. If one believes that Jews as a people are the product of an insular tradition with  DNA which has been verified  as being shared by Jews all over the world both Sephardic, Mizrahi and Ashkenazi then this reform 'ceremony' reveals just how detached Reform is from Orthodox or Rabbinical Judaism. If you think incorporating gentile characteristics strengthens our unique lineage, then you think these people benefit our ethnicity and anyone opposed is 'racist'(such an overused, incorrectly applied word these days among the PC crowd). If. on the other hand, you believe, as do the largely homogenous communities of Iranian, Syrian and other mizrahi and Sephardic communities that it is our mission to preserve our 'Jewishness' by not intermarrying with gentiles, then this event is but another example of the rapidly assimilating segment  known as Reform.

I usually don’t write on bloggs, but after reading this entry, I could not resist to add to this debate.

The people from Cairo are brave. I pray that they enrich the children of Israel [as many converts have].

First, no journey to become Jewish is meaningless. Your statement is very disappointing. Second, Reform Judaism, Masorti [as we call Conservative Judaism here in the UK], or any other movement within Judaism needs not look like Orthodox Judaism. Neither is Orthodox Judaism the sole representation of world Jewry.  At the same time, Orthodox Judaism is not Rabbinic Judaism direct inheritor, nor can it claim a direct phone like to God [on behalf of the children of Israel]. Judaism is not like Christianity with a pope. There is no Jewish pope, or any one stream that represents all Judaism.

On the guys in Cairo. I say, welcome my brothers. I converted to Judaism via Progressive Judaism [mix of Reform and Liberal Judaism], here in the UK. I am a member of a Reform congregation in Newcastle upon Tyne. We have about 3000 mitnadigm,  800 Orthodox and 160 Reform Jews in Newcastle. I am black, born here in England to African parents. I wear a rasta hat as head covering [as against a traditional kippa]. I am also the only black person who is Jewish in Newcastle. I don’t feel any different than any other Jews. Being part of the Jewish people does not incorporate my so called gentile characteristics, because once one becomes Jewish, he/she is Jewish. You would probably know that Judaism forbids one reminding a convert that they were once converts. Especially someone/people who have converted lishma[ for the sole sake of God].

 Avraham Avinu was a convert to Judaism. The concept of homogeneity is also a myth. Why, look around you…why do Iranian Jews look like….other Iranians, why do Yemenite Jews look like other Yemenite and why do Polish Jews look…Polish.

Am I against assimilation, yes…but intermarriage is something we need to try and address. No-one seems to have the answer. But note the following…Moses married a Kushite [Ethiopian], and a lady from Median [present day Saudi Arabia], Solomon and David married loads of non-Jewish wives, so did Joseph…should I go on…the question is how does the Jewish world incorporate these people into our communities [within certain boundaries]. That is the challenge. It’s not about excluding them.

Most Middle Eastern people resemble each other much more than, for example, they do Europeans. I defy you to tell an Iranian Jew apart from a Syrian Jew or from an Egyptian Jew or from a Bukharan Jew. In Fact, these communities of Mizrahi Jews are as free of inter-marriage as any Jewish communities in the world have ever been. So you are quite mistaken on that:the Jews who continued as Jews in ALL the muslim countries did so thru never marrying outside the faith. In fact, Syrian Jews to this day forbid inter-marriage and their Rabbis have issued an official edict banning conversion of Gentiles. We are a small people who have always been distinguished by our outsized contribution in every area of  Science, Business, the Arts and Learning. That is due to our shared DNA which is common to Jews from every corner of the world. We have no need or desire to incorporate Gentile characteristics into our gene pool. This is not racism but simple pride in distinct genetic heritage. 

A meaningless affectation of Judaism?

No! A meaningless post by an anonymous "Jew" who think he knows more about what a Jew is and the tradition.

Traditionally there have been a number of different modes of welcoming non Jews to Judaism. There is the story of Ruth which has become canonical and which countered the views of people like Ezra.

Historically, Jews have always intermarried. That is a fact. Since the founding of the reform movement some Orthodox Jews have been besides themselves with anger at the temerity of Jews challenging their notions of what is a Jew. They are afraid that reform rules will diminish the authority of the rabbis and their beth dins.

As a result their attacks on non Orthodox converts has been an attack on the Reform movement rather than at the converts themselves.  

What these orthodox dead enders don't want to see is that if there were no Reform movement Jews inclined to move towards it would have left Judaism altogether. This happened in Italy, in Eastern Europe and in all places where there is no reform Judaism.

The choice isn't between Orthodox Judaism and Reform, the choice is between Judaism and some other religion or no religion.

Of course, some Orthodox people would rather the Jews who eschew Orthodoxy would disappear since they are more afraid of Reformed Judaism  which challenges their authority than they are of a shrinking Jewish base.

Fortunately, Reform Judaism (Conservative as well as Reform and others) is here to stay and the angry and insistent posts by anonymous and nominous Jews will avail them nothing.  

"Most Middle Eastern people resemble each other much more than, for example, they do Europeans. I defy you to tell an Iranian Jew apart from a Syrian Jew or from an Egyptian Jew or from a Bukharan Jew."

I am not sure you are right, but if you were so what. Most of these Jews resemble the non Jews in the surrounding communities more than do the Jews of say Russia or even Italy.

"We are a small people who have always been distinguished by our outsized contribution in every area of  Science, Business, the Arts and Learning. That is due to our shared DNA which is common to Jews from every corner of the world."

Most of the contributions have been made by Ashkenazi and not by Mizrachi Jews, anonymous "Maven." Even so DNA has nothing to do with it. Cultural habits do.

"Most Middle Eastern people resemble each other much more than, for
example, they do Europeans. I defy you to tell an Iranian Jew apart
from a Syrian Jew or from an Egyptian Jew or from a Bukharan Jew."

I am not sure you are right, but if you were so what. Most of these
Jews resemble the non Jews in the surrounding communities more than do
the Jews of say Russia or even Italy'.

 You are not following the thread properly. The above statement was made in reply to the previous poster who stated  'The concept of homogeneity is also a myth. Why,
look around you…why do Iranian Jews look like….other Iranians, why do
Yemenite Jews look like other Yemenite..' That, as I pointed out, is demonstrably untrue. First of all, most indigenous Middle Eastern populations resemble each other. Only a trained eye can distinguish between ethnicities. The Mizrahi and Sephardic communities are the most homogenous of all the Jewish communities. Their rate of inter-marriage is infinitesmal. That answers your 'so what?'

Yes, most of the contributions since the Industrial revolution were made by Ashkenazi because of their residing in the West. In the previous 1500 years before that, the leading contributors in all fields of Learning and science were Sephardim and Mizrahim.  DNA has everything to do with it, culture merely provides access.

This discussion went somewhere...strange.

Soccer--Maybe I will write about that.  Good idea.

Anonymous in Newcastle: Rock on, brother!  I agree with everything you say.  The difference, though, is that you have a community to welcome you and take you in.  My concern for the new Jews in Cairo is that there isn't really any community in Cairo to welcome them or take them in, and though it's nice to have a rabbi you love a few hours away, it's a different feeling than having one across the street or across town, even.  And it's different to not have a chevruta nearby, or even just not to have someone to invite you over for a shabbos meal who can provide a Jewish environment.  I don't think a Jewish environment is the most important thing, but I do think it's important not only just to serve as an informal classroom, but also to make people comfortable and feel like they're part of a group and committed to the group.  Still, it's certainly possible to do, and I wish the Jews of Cairo the best. 

I'm with Jonathan on central Illinois not being an easy place for any Jew to grow up. Being another jew that grow up with the closest shul and rabbi being an hour drive and having few jews, none my own age, living near me - it sucks. They have a hard road ahead of them and I hope they find the treasure I have found in judaism. To the Jews of Cairo I say: Shalom Aleichem and Mazal Tov.

There are other Jews one heck of a lot closer than a few hours, I can attest to that.  The closest temple, as I've previously pointed out, is a scant 45 minutes away, in Paducah, Kentucky.  And I personally know of members that drive to Temple Israel in Paducah from farther away than Cairo, Illinois.  They are only as isolated as they wish to be.

 Now, when the various and sundry Orthodox rabbis can all get on the same page as far as conversion procedures and criteria are concerned, then I'll be only a bit more concerned about their opinion than I already am.  A mikvah, observance of the mitzvot, and a hatafah dam brit or brit milah, are the bare requirements for conversion.  Past all of that, it becomes a Talmudic argument, and I would say, up for some serious debate.

I have to agree with a previous poster that it does look like its an issue of authority.  Some rabbis floating around out there saying that their adaptations and innovations in Judaism are valid to the exclusion of anyone else's adaptations and innovations.  Now, I don't use those words pejoratively; but let's face it, we've had to adapt, and creatively, over the years or we might not be here.  G-d has given us an intellect, and we've used it over the years to focus more effectively on what is important in our relationship with Him.

 Which leads me back to these new brothers and sisters of ours.  What can their enthusiasm, faith, and perspective bring to the Jewish people?  Dilution?  Of some orthodox rabbi's authority?  Maybe.  But I firmly believe that they will certainly bring new life, vibrant and necessary, to our, and now their, people.   

There's so much wrongness going on here.

 First off, as someone who was brought up in a Christian family and lives in an overwhelming Christian environment, I do have a bad habit of calling it the "Old Testament" instead of the "Tannakh" simply because when I say that, most people look at me confused.  I also don't simply call it the Bible as I've gotten into argument after argument after almost fisticuffs because when I say "The Bible tells us the dietary laws we should follow" I typically get a response like "Jesus never said that" and then am told my beliefs are stupid, etc, so I use terminology the rest of the people I am surrounded by can understand and sometimes it comes out even in a Jewish setting.

Second, who decides what "Jewish" is?  Yes, there's certain things, like Kashrut, Shabbat, Negiah, Tzniut, that are just about strictly "Jewish".  But when it comes to "even just not to have someone to invite you over for a shabbos meal who can provide a Jewish environment", as Tamar put it, who's the ruling authority on what makes that environment "Jewish"?  Is it the Orthodox Rabbi of Ashkenazi decent?  If so, then I guess all those Sephardic Jews just aren't "Jewish" enough, are they?

I say I keep my home very "Jewish" by most standards and steretypes, but it isn't hard since both of my parents are of Eastern European decent.  It was their grandparents, who were in their late teens, early twenties when they had my parents parents, who were the same age when they had my parents, who immigrated.  So when I'm at shul, and someone tells the joke "You know how you can tell the difference between Jews and Christians?  Christians leave without saying good-bye and Jews say good-bye and never leave" I laugh and understand it's not so much a "Jewish" thing as it is an "Eastern European" thing.

And I'd say 55 people is a community.  Granted, the community I'm a part of here usually has trouble making minyan, so I might be slightly biased as opposed to, say, someone who's lived in New York.  Those 55 people can have their own community to make it's own history with.  Whatever they do, being Jews, will be Jewish.  Just because it's not the same as what happens at 770 or the local Orthodox shul doesn't invalidate it at all.

Thirdly, the comments made above about telling the difference between different Middle Eastern Jews reeks of racism.  It's no different from some white supremacist saying "All blacks look alike".  Knowing quite a few people of Middle Eastern decent I can honestly tell you that, yes, I CAN tell the difference between an Egyptian Jew, a Syrian Jew, and an Iranian Jew.

Someone told me a Simchat that you're Jewish when you feel you're Jewish.  No one, not a Syrian Jew who may hypocritically not accept my conversion as making me a "real" Jew yet waits for the Moshiac (who is, himself, to be a decendant of Ruth, a convert) or some blogger/commenter, can take that away from me.  Have I been to mikveh yet?  No, and therefore I remind those around me not to count me for minyan.  However, when someone asks me what I am I simply answer "Jewish".

Those 55 people are just as Jewish as every Jew who's ever logged into this website.  They are just as Jewish as everyone else who's danced with a Torah, worn or refused to wear a kippah.  They are just as Jewish as Rabbi Akiva, who's parents were converts, and  the shaliach tzibbur from three Shabbatot ago.

Don't discredit them unless you are willing to discredit yourselves. 

However, according to Orthodox Judaism the  traditional  definition of "Jew" is
any person whose mother (fathers don't count) was a Jew or any person who has gone through the lengthy process of an Orthodox conversion.  Conversions by any other than orthodox are not recognized. This is not surprising as both Reform and Conservative congregations no longer believe, teach or follow mesorah. So dear uriah, I'm sorry but  although you may think you are a 'Jew' , according to every defintion of Torah and Mesorah believing and practising Jews, who constitue the majority worldwide and in Israel, you are not. And please refrain from the incorrect and erroneous application of the label 'racist' for those whose standards adhere to traditional orthodox Judaism. It only marks you as an immature and ignorant person. Yes, Rav Akiba was the son of a convert BUT he believed and taught Mesorah. Something which Reform and Conservatism have rejected.

According to Torah?  Dear, dear Anonymous, according to Torah all a person needs to do is accept the people and the beliefs.  Where is it written Ruth went through classes with an Orthodox rabbi?  Oh, that's right, it's not.

And I'm not saying I'm halachically Jewish.  In fact, I explicitly stated that I'm not.  Not to mention I never called anyone racist, I said the remark in itself was.  

 And I don't recall telling you I was Reform or Conservative or even what flavor of Judaism I ascribe to. 

Why do I always get the impression that someone who says or writes, "Reform does not believe in X," or "Reform rejects Y," hasn't the foggiest idea what Reform believes, rejects, or teaches?

If they make that kind of sweeping statement after some degree of investigation, that's one thing...a debatable, discussable thing.  If, on the other hand, they make that kind of sweeping statement based on a sweeping statement that fell from the mouth of an Orthodox rebbe who might very well have an axe to grind, that's B.S.

Before anyone starts throwing stones, they should take a look at the URJ's beliefs, teachings, and halakha.  Yes, I said halakha, and if you don't think we've got it, look again. I've at least made the effort of becoming more familiar with what more Orthodox teachers teach.  I consider it a necessity if I'm going to engage with my more Orthodox brothers and sisters.

Rambam, other than being totally clueless on the subject of mesorah and halacha,I'm sure you are a very knowledgeable Reform jew.

The Reform Movement is, and always has, been based upon the
principle that the body of Jewish Law is not binding on each Jew, but
the mitzvot are to be engaged as a matter of individual choice. Each
individual Jew has the authority to determine what is or isn’t an
expression of Jewish tradition to which he or she should adhere. Note
that the choice is not limited to which mitzvot one will take
up, but whether or not they are binding in any way beyond personal
choice. The distinction here is very important. If the principle was
that Reform Jews are free to decide what to do in terms of observance,
it would not be a unique perspective; every Jew makes this choice
hundreds of times every day. But it is something else entirely to place
in the hands of each individual the authority to decide
what is or is not obligatory. In other words, Reform Judaism  basically declares Halakha irrelevant to modern life,
and each person therefore decides for him or her self what Judaism
should look like.

Rabbi Eric Yoffie, the President of the Union for Reform Judaism, says it like this:
“We’re a mitzvah-oriented tradition, not halacha-oriented…If you take
it all upon yourself as an obligation rather than as a choice, you’ve
reached the point at which you’re no longer a Reform Jew.”

You know who said being Jewish had to do with DNA? I'll give you a hint: It begins with a big, fat, ugly "N".

Keep in mind that anyone who became Jewish, no matter what the genetic origin, be it Moabite, Yoruba, Han Chinese, or even Slavic, is Jewish. Let's not forget the many men from the goyim who married/ravished our B'not Israel, producing 100% Jewish children with an entirely different genetic line.

 Judaism has nothing to do with race and everything to do with Torah. If you've accepted the yoke of Torah in your heart, you're Jewish!

And those who say only an "Orthodox" conversion counts are simply kidding themselves. A kosher conversion means three basic things: Mikvah, Milah/Hatafat Dam for males, and Beit Din of three rabbis. Unless there's been some mistake, I see all three in the Cairo example. I can see no reason, other than simple stupid politics, to disqualify their conversions.