Why Does My Adopted Child Need Conversion?

I recently received an angry e-mail from an adoptive father questioning why their adopted daughter needed a conversion to Judaism. "When we adopted her she became part of our family. We're Jewish, therefore she is Jewish. She needs nothing more." Unfortunately, the matter is not that simple.

Judaism is both a religion and a people. It is based on the idea that God made a covenant, an agreement, with one particular family and one particular people. To be a Jew is not simply to believe in a particular religion. It also means becoming part of a people with shared memories, a distinctive culture, certain dreams, and definite rules as to how one joins that people.

According to Jewish law, one becomes part of the Jewish people either by birth or conversion. If one's mother at the moment of birth is Jewish, the child is Jewish. Or else one can convert through a carefully defined procedure. This includes a bris or symbolic bris for a boy, and immersion in a mikvah or ritual bath for both a boy and a girl. In ways, these rules are similar to the laws of nationalization to become an American citizen. One can be an American by being born in this country. However, if one arrives from abroad, residence here does not make that person an American. Even a child must go through a formal procedure of naturalization before being accepted. So too must a baby born of a gentile birth mother and arriving in a Jewish home go through a formal procedure to be considered Jewish.

I recommend that an infant be converted at as young an age as possible; my three children were taken to the mikvah at around four months of age. A beit din of three rabbis (some allow three lay people) must be present. The child is fully immersed, so that the water of the mikvah (or here in Florida, the ocean) touches every part of their body. It is a powerful symbolic moment. The water represents the womb and the child is being reborn into the Jewish community.

The Talmud asks what gives the community the right to convert a child who is too young to consent. The answer is based on the rabbinic principle zachin leadam shelo befanav, we can do something to someone's benefit without their permission. Becoming a Jew is considered to the child's benefit. Technically the child has the right upon reaching the age of bar or bat mitzvah to reject the conversion or reaffirm it. That is why it is so important to give an adopted child a strong sense of Jewish identity and a good Jewish education, with the hope that he or she will continue to reaffirm it.

I, like all Conservative and Reform rabbis, require such a formal conversion for future Jewish life cycle events such as a Bar/Bat Mitzvah or wedding. I also think it is a serious mistake to neglect it. Judaism is based on peoplehood, and as a people we have the right to decide what formal procedure to use to become part of our faith. It is also a beautiful spiritual moment to hold that child in the mikvah, and celebrate the entry of a new soul into the Jewish community.