# My wife is converting to Judaism **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [September 16, 2014, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-wife-is-converting-to-judaism/698659 "2014-09-16T16:27:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2014, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-wife-is-converting-to-judaism/698659/81 "2014-09-17T23:06:36Z")
> [@Terr](#): > > The Orthodox do not recognize Conservative conversions as valid. Of course she didn’t want her to use the mikvah - she did not consider her Jewish. No, she is Grandparents came from Russia to flee pogroms Jewish. It was me she was concerned about. The Rabbi called Mrs. Plant (v.2.0) and said she was welcome. ---
**Author:** ![Terr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/839c29/32.png) [@Terr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terr)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2014, 11:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-wife-is-converting-to-judaism/698659/82 "2014-09-17T23:08:26Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > No, she is Grandparents came from Russia to flee pogroms Jewish. It was me she was concerned about. The Rabbi called Mrs. Plant (v.2.0) and said she was welcome. Ah I misread your post. Of course, if your wife was Jewish, your being a Conservative convert should not have had any impact on your wife’s visiting a mikvah. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2014, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-wife-is-converting-to-judaism/698659/83 "2014-09-17T23:50:43Z")
She took me to Brookline to buy a tallit, and we got ugly looks from the lady in the store. I guess I don’t look Jewish. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Eva\_Luna](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e495f1/32.png) [@Eva\_Luna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eva_Luna)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2014, 12:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-wife-is-converting-to-judaism/698659/84 "2014-09-18T00:36:12Z")
> [@C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](#): > > Our rabbi, who has been a leader in the Conservative Movement (I think he was once Pres of the whatever it is), when his daughter was getting married in Israel, had to find “proof” that his wife was Jewish. He basically had to find an ultra-Orthodox rabbi from her home town to write a letter attesting etc etc. I think those folks in Israel who view themselves as Guardians of the Faith are not “reasonable” people. The ridiculous part of that whole deal is that [Conservative Judaism hasn’t even been around that long.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conservative_Judaism) So unless your rabbi’s wife was a convert to Judaism rather than descended from Jews, chances are pretty low that someone in her ancestry wasn’t Jewish according to Orthodox standards. (Same as the case with my family AFAIK, which is going back ~ 4 - 5 generations to various locations in the former East Bloc, and it wasn’t too long before then when written family records become spotty at best, either because they never existed, or because they were destroyed in WWII. Not to mention before Jews had last names in the Western sense, which makes genealogical research pretty damn difficult.) ---
**Author:** ![Eva\_Luna](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e495f1/32.png) [@Eva\_Luna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eva_Luna)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2014, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-wife-is-converting-to-judaism/698659/85 "2014-09-18T00:45:15Z")
Just for kicks, here’s [but one story](http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/02/magazine/02jewishness-t.html?scp=11&sq=marriage+in+Israel&st=nyt) of the problems people run into documenting their Jewishness to get married in Israel. ---
**Author:** ![Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slow_moving_vehicle/32/291_2.png) [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slow_Moving_Vehicle)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2014, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-wife-is-converting-to-judaism/698659/86 "2014-09-18T00:52:19Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > I think maybe it was Ariel Sharon commenting on the controversy involving Reform and Conservative Jews immigrating to Israel said something like “The synagogue I do not go to is an Orthodox one”. > > And of course the old joke about a Jew stuck on a desert island. He built three huts there. When he was rescued they asked what the three huts were for. The first he said was his home. The second he said was his synagogue. “What is the third one for?” asked his rescuers. He replied “That’s the synagogue I wouldn’t set foot in if you paid me!” I’ve heard both of those jokes applied to Christians, too: “Saint Michael And All Angels was the church he avoided going to, and he wouldn’t dream of avoiding going to another.” And the desert island people are Baptists. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-wife-is-converting-to-judaism/698659.md?page=4)