Notes

The New 'Children' Of Israel: This Is How Converted Jews Are Formed In Spain

Antonio winces at the thought new villas in new andalucia of circumcision. At 57, he has no other choice. He has been putting it off for a long time, but he knows that his conversion to Judaism will not be complete until he undergoes that little ordeal. "I will surely do it this year. I was close when I visited Jerusalem. A rabbi offered to do it for me right there with a razor." Antonio, a hotelier by profession, is one of the 200 non-Jews who each year prepare in Spain to convert to the Hebrew faith. Some are disillusioned Catholics, others have never looked into a church until they came across Adonai's message.

"More and more people are coming to us," confirms Mijael Sofer, rabbi of the Shema Sefarad Community. "To practice Judaism you need a solid foundation, it is not like other religions that believing in something seems to be worth it. You have to acquire a series of rudiments, know the history, doctrines and traditions. Here they learn a very practical Judaism, from correctly performing a prayer to receiving 'Shabbat.' Rabbi Sofer's 'yeshiva' (Torah study center) is located south of Madrid, hidden in a tangle of official protection blocks Discreet gray arches welcome the community.

"I have never been to mass, but I like history and I started researching Judaism. A few months ago I contacted the rabbi and discovered a new world. Now I spend the week waiting to come to the synagogue, although my grandmother, who She is Catholic to the core, she is not amused at all, "confesses Valentina, who at 21 has decided that it is time to start living under the 613 precepts of the Torah. Like his peers, he strictly observes the 'Shabbat' and consumes 'kosher' food. Not a Jewish ancestor precedes her, but she is willing to be the first of a proud line of converts.

All students are invited to respect the 'Shabbat' and eat 'kosher' food"Many come because they have discovered family documents that reveal them as Jews, or because they remember strange practices in their childhood that they now know are of Jewish origin, such as the secret lighting of candles, prayers or cooking recipes. Now they want to recover those roots that they were taken from them, "says Sofer. Conversion classes are weekly and span two years. Seven students attend the 'yeshiva' that afternoon. Another dozen do it from their homes via webcam. "The first course is focused on the history of Judaism, from Abraham to the present day. The second is more aimed at religious understanding, holiday theology, and liturgy. If in that time the student has prepared and has shown that he really cares, that it is not a spurious interest but something he needs to live, the process is completed through conversion, "explains the rabbi.

Judaism exams in Madrid"A conversion has three basic requirements. Undergo circumcision in the case of men, take the purification bath in the Mikvé and receive the validation of a rabbinical court", confirms Mario Stofenmacher, director of Education and Worship of the Masortí Bet Congregation. -The. Until mid-2014, it was impossible to take the exam in Spain. You had to travel to Israel or London. But this community, belonging to the conservative Jewish branch, has managed to have a rabbinical court authorized by Israel examine the Spanish applicants once a year in Madrid. About 20 people pass the test each year, which entitles them to apply for Israeli citizenship and benefit from the Law of Return. An advance that Stofenmacher calls a "historic milestone".

However, the illusion of these Spaniards of being treated as children by Israel is often truncated. Orthodox Judaism, the most powerful branch in the Hebrew country, is very reluctant to conversions that do not come from its branch. And based on his power, he manages to stop 'sine die' all return or nationality files that he considers impure. Stofenmacher, however, qualifies that rejection. While it is true that nationality by means of non-Orthodox conversion is very complicated, having passed the examination of a recognized rabbinical court "greatly facilitates the citizenship requests of those people who want to emigrate to Israel. In our congregation there are several cases that, after being examined in court, have been able to establish themselves in the country. "

This rejection does not seem to diminish the love of the Spanish aspirants for their new mother country. "To get closer to Israel we would all have to go through Orthodox conversion, and obviously that is a bit difficult. We believe that the Torah (the holy book of Judaism) is not only for the Jew, but offers a message of personal transformation for everyone. the world ", indicates Sofer, who adds:" The one who is born is no longer a Jew but the one who believes and acts according to the Jewish faith. " His student Rodolfo Marimón, a technician at a recycling plant, is one of those dedicated practitioners. He abandoned the gospel path to "find the truth" in the Hebrew faith. Today he does not hesitate to wear a kippah (Jewish hat) on his crown: "I feel a lot of peace here. I have always thought that my ancestors were Jews, and this is for me a return to my origins."

"It has been 25 years since our congregation was established in Spain, but in the last five we have noticed a considerable increase in people yearning for conversion. Perhaps it has been the spiritual and social crisis derived from recent years, or perhaps the fact that there has been a social change in terms of the perception of the Jewish in Spain, but we do feel that there is more interest ", acknowledges the director of Worship of Bet-El, who remembers: "Judaism is not proselytizing, we are not looking for new believers." About 30 people gather in his classes, 20 of them in person and another dozen more through the Internet. university students, retirees, bricklayers, hairdressers. "They are usually divided into two profiles. The first, people over 45 years of age, professionals with a certain level of training who have undertaken a personal search and, now that they have no family ties, decide to take the road. And the second is young people, in their 30s. They do not usually come from practicing families, but rather it is a very personal search, "explains Stofenmacher.

Spanish converts are fascinated by the liturgy in the synagogue almost as much as learning the Jewish face of Spanish history. "There are many erroneous beliefs about Jews that we are trying to clarify here," says Sofer. "There are many examples, such as the belief that the Inquisition persecuted the Jews, when in truth it had no authority over that community, but forced their conversion to Christianity in order to later persecute them. Or the never explained history of the discovery of America, where more than 80% of the crew was Jewish. Even Christopher Columbus took a Hebrew interpreter, confident of finding remote Jewish communities. "

The increase in conversions is expanding the meager census of Jews in Spain. It is estimated that in our country there are between 40,000 and 50,000 Jews, mostly Orthodox. The matter of conversion, precisely, is one of the great underlying problems of Judaism, since its three branches (Orthodox, Conservative and Reform) have never managed to agree on the necessary requirements.

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