In the last few months alone, consider the following: a synagogue was firebombed in Australia; Israeli soccer fans were beaten in Amsterdam; and Canadian synagogues, stores and university dorms are vandalized weekly. Antisemitic incidents have become a daily occurrence since Oct. 7, 2023. It would be fair to wonder why anyone who wasn’t born Jewish would want to join the tribe.
And yet, from coast to coast, rabbis of all denominations are reporting strong numbers of candidates showing serious interest in Jewish conversion post-Oct. 7. At Toronto’s largest Reform synagogue, Holy Blossom Temple, this fall’s conversion cohort comprises 60 students—double the previous class size. Reform rabbis in Mississauga and Oakville have had to cap admissions to their conversion courses, scrambling to find rabbis for one-on-one classes. There are waiting lists—and they’re growing.
While accurate numbers do not exist for Jewish conversion across the country, The CJN has anecdotally confirmed that these trends extend to some Conservative and Orthodox communities.
On today’s episode of The CJN Daily, host Ellin Bessner sits down with three new Jews to learn more. David Gelles, 36, is a Venezuelan-born lawyer in Toronto whose family can trace its roots through the Holocaust; Julie Moreau is a French-Canadian therapist now living in Oakville who decided to convert shortly after Oct. 7; and Gracia Mboko, an African-born entrepreneur living in Burlington, found Jewish signposts on the ground and in the air.
Related links
- Why Alexandria Fanjoy Silver converted twice, on The CJN Daily.
- Read more from Emily Caruso Parnell about the conversion process she underwent from both Orthodox and Reform pathways, in The CJN archives.
- How Canada’s newest converts prepared for Rosh Hashanah in Kelowna, B.C., on The CJN Daily (from 2021).
Credits
- Host and writer: Ellin Bessner (@ebessner)
- Production team: Zachary Kauffman (producer), Michael Fraiman (executive producer)
- Music: Dov Beck-Levine
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