final innovation unbound reflection on conversion

The speaker wants to explore the question of what would happen if 10 million people converted to Judaism and were dispersed around the world. They discuss the tension between maintaining the continuity of Judaism and allowing for diversity and innovation. The speaker, as a convert themselves, brings an outsider's perspective to the tradition. They mention the challenges of identity and how their different perspective on Israel and Gaza can contribute to productive debates. They question where the red lines would be if there were more converts than those born into Judaism. They also discuss the changing sense of outreach in Judaism and the tension between welcoming others and not wanting to be too evangelical. The speaker emphasizes the need to preserve the essence of the tradition while embracing diversity. They acknowledge that these questions have more to do with raising questions than providing answers. I want to explore this question for contemplation that came up in the final period of this course around the idea of what would happen if 10 million people converted to Judaism tomorrow, and they were dispersed evenly all around the globe. The question was raising sort of what potential possibilities that would open up for a Jewish future and what challenges might arise. And, you know, I started to think about, like, well, let's push it here, where if there are more converts than people born into Judaism, I do think that there emerges this tension between continuity of what we think of when we think of Judaism, what that means, and diversity and really allowing for the tradition to be innovated and dynamic and alive. And I think, you know, we do have these challenges around identity, which I feel very much as a convert myself, where there is this incredible pro of being an outsider looking into a tradition and that people do appreciate the fact that I am able to bring a slightly outside perspective into Jewish life and that I can sort of appreciate different elements of the tradition than, you know, I can see the tradition with the beginner's eyes. And at the same time, I think there are moments when, like, for example, right now in the Israel and Gaza war, and when I'm thinking about what's happening in Gaza, having not grown up with an affiliation to the nation state of Israel is particularly important, you know, outside of any other country to me, I feel like I'm approaching that with a really different sensibility than many of my, you know, shul members, fellow shul members at my conservative synagogue. And I think that there are moments when that is a really helpful perspective to bring and just like the variety of perspective on that really is healthy for the conversation and healthy for us having a productive debate around sort of a political issue. And at the same time, I think it's really challenging for my fellow shul members, not all, not roundly, but that I do have a really different relationship to this nation state because of my upbringing. And I wonder if we had more converts, I mean, Israel is just one issue, but everything is like this, right? If we had more converts than people who were born into Judaism, for example, like, what, where are those red lines? And this is something we talk about all the time at Pluralistic Rabbinic Seminary, where we think about like, well, we're pluralistic. So we are sort of having to define for ourselves what we would allow to celebrate as rabbis and where we would draw a line. And so it's that like both welcoming diversity and innovation and also, well, you know, where is the line that this is no longer Judaism, this is no longer a Jewish perspective or life way. And I mean, I think this is always a tension when ideas get popular or practices get popular and they become held in the collective much more broadly. The question becomes, you know, what is the essence of the tradition that we can't lose even as many, many more people convert to Judaism? And I think, you know, one of the things that has come up as a through line throughout this entire Innovation Unbound first course is that there is this changing sense around Kiruv, that we're sort of allergic to this idea as Jews of doing outreach or sort of inviting people in. That's so antithetical to Judaism. And I have been challenged to really think about, well, there's this really helpful wisdom tradition. Don't we want other people to be welcomed in? Wouldn't we see it as a success if many more people did convert? And I think that that is a really interesting edge to play with around, like, on the one hand, feeling the awakening around celebrating this as a wisdom tradition that is helpful and is needed and can really prepare us spiritually for the work of our time. And at the same time, not wanting to be evangelicalized and, you know, from such a normative Christian perspective, like, that we were going to evangelize about this religion and bring other people in. So that's just something I've been thinking about is sort of wanting to both make accessible while also not wanting to stray too far from this norm of, like, really not doing outreach. And if 10 million people, if the religion became so successful at doing outreach and converting people, is there something inherent that would be not Jewish about that? So, you know, I mean, I think that this is all juicy, more questions than answers. But I'm really curious with thriving diversity and vigor that comes with that versus the distillation of the core ideas and sort of figuring out, well, what's the essence that we wouldn't want to lose? So that's what we're working on with all of Pluralistic Rebellion Seminary. But thanks for raising the question.