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What on earth do Jewish families do when they adopt school-age sons from gentile backgrounds? I thought that a person was either born with a Jewish soul or they were not. A soul does not, I don't think, become Jewish because the body is adopted or converted. My take is that there is no such thing, technically, as a conversion. There is, however, the possibility that a Jewish soul exists in a person who does not realize they are Jewish, or are not recognized as such. Hence, the process of conversion is really one of realization.

Naomi Rivkis < This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it wrote in message What on earth do Jewish families do when they adopt school-age sons from gentile backgrounds? I thought that a person was either born with a Jewish soul or they were not. A soul does not, I don't think, become Jewish because the body is adopted or converted. My take is that there is no such thing, technically, as a conversion. There is, however, the possibility that a Jewish soul exists in a person who does not realize they are Jewish, or are not recognized as such. Hence, the process of conversion is really one of realization. Maybe so, but if they're male and they wanna be considered one of the Tribe here on earth, they still have to have a piece of their whatzis removed. Naomi

Naomi Rivkis < This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it wrote in message What on earth do Jewish families do when they adopt school-age sons from gentile backgrounds? I thought that a person was either born with a Jewish soul or they were not. A soul does not, I don't think, become Jewish because the body is adopted or converted. My take is that there is no such thing, technically, as a conversion. There is, however, the possibility that a Jewish soul exists in a person who does not realize they are Jewish, or are not recognized as such. Hence, the process of conversion is really one of realization. This is not an unpopular idea, but mystical speculation is all it is. Those who believe in real conversions say that a convert acquires a Jewish soul (whatever it is), and that his animal soul becomes Jewish by changing its source from k'lipat tuma to k'lipat noga. Yisroel Godwrestler Warriorson Markov - Boston, MA       Member www.reason.com

Forgive me, but I have a problem with this kind of thing. If the position was the other way around ie a Jewish child being adopted by non-Jewish parents, and then being baptised there would be a big uproar here and in the Jewish press. Er. I was asking the question, about children who have no other home and will be put on the streets when they're 16. I think I can be reasonably forgiven for assuming that living with a Jewish family would be better than that, especially as I am *not* planning to force a conversion even if I could