Wednesday, May 16, 2007

New RCA Conversion Standards

Yuter has the story

All of this reminds me of an old family story.

One of our relatives married a non-Jewish girl, and after their first daughter was born they confirmed her or baptized her according to the tenets of her mother's religion. Out of a sense of tradition, or a desire for balance, the baby's paternal grandmother, my great aunt, insisted on a "baby naming ceremony" with readings and blessings and roles for different participating family members.

The family responded by dividing into camps, with each camp taking something akin to one of the following as their standard:

(1) "There no such thing as a baby naming ceremony. Jews name their daughters during Torah reading with a Mi Sheberach. Plus this baby isn't Jewish. We're not going."
(2) "The Mi Sheberach didn't fall out of the sky. It was created by men. If this lady wants to make up a ceremony that has meaning to her, let her. Why should we care? No harm. No foul. Only this baby isn't Jewish, so we're not going."
(3) "The invented ceremony is bogus, and the baby isn't Jewish, so who cares? We might as well go"

IIRC I was part of Camp 3.

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