The Conversion Factor

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And even though this was the case, our Sages did not instruct to stop accepting converts, because the fear that a convert from whom righteous Jews would descend, and not be accepted, is much more serious than the fear they will accept converts who, in the first generations, did not behave properly. This is also what Rabbi Eliyahu Gutmacher wrote (Aderet Eliyahu, YD, 87), that the danger of rejecting a convert, who should be accepted, is more serious than the danger of accepting a convert who will return to his former ways. For indeed, our Sages said (Sanhedrin 99b) about Timna who was the daughter of kings, and wished to cling to Abraham’s seed and convert: “She came before Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and they did not accept her. She went and became a concubine of Eliphaz, son of Esau, and said, referring to herself: It is preferable to be a maidservant for this nation, and not be a noblewoman for another nation. Ultimately, Amalek, son of Eliphaz emerged from her, and that tribe afflicted the Jewish people.” In other words, as a punishment for not accepting her, the people who caused more trouble for Israel than any other people, were born.

Rabbi Eliyahu Gutmacher (Aderet Eliyahu YD 85) added that in our generations, in which many Jews learn from the Gentiles and follow in their ways, many converts often live more observantly than their Jewish spouses do. Incidentally, this was also the case in the kibbutzim, where the volunteers who converted raised the religious level of the kibbutzim, and apparently, their good influence continues to this day. See: The Lenient Opinion of Conversion Rav Eliezer Melamed

Rabbi Tzvi Hirsch Kalischer (1795-1874)

You should not refrain from circumcising a boy whose father is Jewish as we are commanded to grant him the opportunity to be circumcised immmediately at the directive of his father. Thus, when he grows up, he will quickly be able to perform the willl of his father by ritually immersing himself according to the Jewish law of conversion.

in a famous rcsponsum [Reproduced in the Dr. Solomon Carlebach Jubilee volume, pp. 265-278 Berlin 1910], he championed the rights of minors born to Gentile mothers and Jewish fathers to be circumcised at the request of the father. The inquiry came from New Orleans. The local rabbi, troubled by the problem of intermarriage, had prohibited circumcision in such cases. Kalischer ruled to the contrary, that it was a duty to do so. Every Gentile is potentially a member of the Jewish faith. This is certainly so in the case of a child whose father wished to rear him as a Jew. It is our duty to do everything possible to facilitate the integration of such families into the Jewish fold. The apprehension that his Gentile mother will not permit him to grow in Judaism should not prevent such conversion. Neither do we hesitate to circumcise a child of Jewish parents who violate some of the fundamental precepts of Judaism.

It is noteworthy that Kalischers decisions have been applied recently by rabbinic courts in the State of Israel where the problem of integrating the children of Gentile mothers and Jewish fathers became acute with the influx of Polish Jews with Gentile wives. Little did he imagine, however, that there would come the day when some of the leaders of a Jewish state would wish to declare such offspring Jews, without benefit of traditional conversion procedures such as tevilah and circumcision. * Those interested in the subjcct are advised to consult the answer given by Jewish authorities to Mr. Ben Gurion's inquiry circulated at the end of 1958. They were mimeographed by the Israeli Government's Prime Minister’s Office. An article summing up the answers, by the author of this article, appeared in the Dec. 1959 issue of Horizon.

See:

ZVI HIRSCH KALISCHER — FATHER OF THE THIRD RETURN TO ZION, Aryeh Newman ,Tradition: A Journal of Orthodox Jewish Thought, Vol. 5, No. 1 (FALL 1962), pp. 76-89 (14 pages) Published by: Rabbinical Council of America (RCA) https://www.jstor.org/stable/23255471

Rabbi Eliezer Melamed (Israel, 21st Century)

The question is as follows: In order to avoid intermarriage can a rabbi convert a non-Jew to observe a traditional Jewish lifestyle without a commitment to complete observance of the mitzvah?

In recent years, I have come to the conclusion that one may convert a non-Jew who will observe a traditional Jewish life in order to avoid intermarriage.

Conversion is Dependent on Jewish Identity

According to the lenient opinion, although conversion is conditional on “acceptance of the mitzvot,” the notion of “acceptance” is interpreted differently. The acceptance is the general consent of the convert that when he converts, he undertakes to enter Clal Yisrael which is bound by the Torah and mitzvot – their reward, and their punishment – as explained in the Written and Oral Torah, but without a personal obligation to keep all the mitzvot. This is a general acceptance of Israel’s religion, and that from that day on, when asked who he is, he will answer unequivocally to all those who ask: I am a Jew!

Proof of This

This is what emerges from the instruction of our Sages (Yevamot 47b) to inform the convert before conversion “a few of the lighter mitzvot and a few of the more stringent mitzvot.” And if the conversion depends on the convert committing to keep all the mitzvot, he should be taught them all, because there may be a mitzvah that he cannot commit to keeping, or because he has a very strong yetzer (inclination) to transgress it, or because in his mind, he does not agree to it. Rather, it is enough that he knows the Jewish religion and wants to join it, in order to convert him. See: The Lenient Opinion of Conversion Rav Eliezer Melamed

the choreographed conversation that the court has with the prospective convert focuses much more on the historical experience of the Jew than on any theological issues. Note that the questions that he is asked are not intended to be impossible to answer. He is not being interrogated rigorously; if anything, the qucstions are an opportunity for the presiding rabbinic court to engage in a conversation about Jewish life and identity. Indeed, the court may be checking only whether
the prospective convert is willing to endure the sufferings of the Jewish people. Shaye Cohen suggests that the authors of the baraita .. were not interested in discovering reasons to reject the convert. Their primary concern was not to verify that the convert accepted all the commandmcnts but that he knew what awaited him, and for this purpose instruction in a few' (representative) commandments would suffice. The rest he would learn later.

Shaye J.D. Cohen, “The Rabbinic Conversion Ceremony,” Journal of Jewish Studies, vol. 41, no. 2 (Autumn 1990): 177-203 p 198

Quoted in: Pledges of Jewish Allegiance: Conversion, Law, and Policymaking in Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century Orthodox Responsa (Stanford Studies in Jewish History and Culture) 1st Edition

by David Ellenson (Author), Daniel Gordis (Author)

Letter Signed by 40 Israeli Rabbis, May 2022

A series of articles have come to our attention where a rabbi has permitted conversion of non-Jews who will not aceept to live bound by all the mitzvot but only as a traditional Jew. This view is very dangerous since it will allow non-Jews to enter the community even though their conversion is inadequate. No conversion can be performed without a commitment to live a life of complete observance of mitzvot.

See: Rabbi Adam Mintz Sefaria Source Sheet: Conversion: Is It Good for the Jews?

"The foreign woman who married an Israclite husband was supposed to leave her gods in her father's house, but even if she did not, it never oCcurred to anyOne to argue that her children were not Israclites. Since the idea of conversion to Judaism did not yet exist ...it never occurred to anyone to demand that the foreign woman undergo some ritual to indicate her acceptance into the religion of Israel."

The Origins of the Matrilineal Principle in Rabbinic Law, Shaye J. D. Cohen, AJS Review, Vol. 10, No. 1 (Spring, 1985), pp. 19-53 (35 pages), p 21. Published By: University of Pennsylvania Press https://www.jstor.org/stable/1486271