Denver Conversion Program Could Become Model for Israel

There once was a program that converted people to Judaism in a way acceptable to rabbis of every denomination.

Two decades later, in a climate in which there is greater animosity among Judaism’s movements, it seems nearly impossible to imagine that such a program could work again.

But even in far darker times Jews have always had hope. And so, the so-called Denver program may be tried again — this time in Israel — as a compromise solution in the fight over religious pluralism.

This compromise plan is to be based on a unique program, which was secretly created in 1977 by Orthodox, Conservative and Reform rabbis in the Mile High City and lasted just over five years.

Their agreement permitted each rabbi to instruct potential converts as he wished, and then all of enrolled in a several weeks-long course run by a highly respected Reform educator.

That course was viewed as a joint venture between the rabbis of all denominations.

Three Orthodox rabbis then formed the religious court that is required to approve each conversion, according to Jewish law, and oversaw the last steps: immersion in the ritual bath, a mikva, for women and men; and ritual circumcision for men.

The program lasted as long as it did only because it operated in complete secrecy, according to Hillel Goldberg, an Orthodox rabbi and editor of Denver’s Jewish newspaper, the Intermountain Jewish News.

No records relating to the conversions were maintained, and estimates of the number of people who became Jews through the program ranged from 150 to more than 600, said Goldberg, who broke the story of the program months after it died.

It collapsed because “the bottom line for a Reform rabbi is autonomy, and the bottom line for an Orthodox rabbi is halachah,” or Jewish law, Goldberg said. “Each side gave up too much and it could no longer live with itself.”

It remains to be seen whether the parties to any similar program, in Israel, would be able to make it work this time around.