Tough conversions

During 11 months in charge of the Bournemouth Reform Synagogue rabbi Amswych has received 12 requests for conversion but only two people have been successful.

“We welcome anyone who wants to be a Jew but we do have to let people know that it isn’t easy, being Jew is not easy”, he said.

The course lasts one year with nine hours session a month, plus discussion sessions. At the end of a conversion course a person is sent before the beth din (“house of judgement”), a group of three rabbis who will decide if someone is accepted as Jew.

Reform Synagogues tend to find that converts often become very active in the synagogues. But Jewish converts don’t always feel thoroughly accepted: “There has always been in Judaism a struggle with some people accepting conversion.

“There are still people in every Jewish community who talk about converts as not being real Jews. Judaism is much more than blood, is about who we are”, he said.

One of the reasons for this is that in the past it was not common to know who had converted “conversions were like a dirty little secret”. The reform movement wants to revert this by celebrating conversions with a public ceremony.