Re: Reply to Yitzik (jara: New Survey: Celtic Conlangs)

On Sun, 12 Jan 2003 07:37:56 +0000
=?iso-8859-1?q?Jan=20van=20Steenbergen?= <ijzeren_jan@...>
writes:
>  --- Steg Belsky skrzypszy:
> > > Never experienced the problem that according to the orthodox
> > > learnings it should be a matter of blood only?
> > What should be a matter of blood only?
> Jewishness in the eyes of fundamentalist Jews. "Blood only" sounds a
> bit
> unpleasant, I must admit; "birth only" would have been better.
> But I have been corrected already. I wasn't aware of the phenomenon
> "giyyur".
> Or rather, after Yitzik explained it to me, I vaguely remember to
> have heard
> once about a procedure which allows non-Jews to became fully
> recognized Jews;
> what I remember was that it is a very heavy and difficult procedure
> and that a
> lot of knowledge is required. And I was under the (wrong)
> assumption, that the
> most ultra-orthodox Jews won't recognize you anyway.
> Jan
-

It's called "conversion".  :-) .  The term Yitzik used, 'giyyur', is the
Hebrew word, which i can't remember ever encountering in a non-Hebrew
context before.  The reason it's "heavy... difficult... and a lot of
knowledge is required" is because someone who wants to convert to (one of
the traditional forms of) Judaism needs to actively learn all the things
that someone who was born into it has been learning passively their whole
life, by experience.  If i remember correctly, the only Jews who don't
accept converts are the Syrian communities of Buenos Aires and Brooklyn,
because they're afraid of people converting just for marriage purposes.


-Stephen (Steg)
"yo 'beam, yo 'dil, it's time to get ill;
  i light up the mic like a silmaril!"
     ~ lords of the rhymes