Souls in transition: The psychosocial process of conversion to Judaism

Other research on conversion to Judaism has investigated who converts, why they do so, and what the outcome of conversion is in terms of religious observance, Jewish identity, ethnicity, and success in forming Jewish family life. This qualitative project focused on the "process" of conversion and what that experience is like for the convert. The goal was to answer three research questions: (1) What is the experience like for people who convert to Judaism? (2) How does conversion to Judaism occur? (3) Is there a pattern of experiences or stages that can be identified that takes place during the conversion process?;Use of in-depth semi-structured interviews helped to give a "voice" to ten people who converted to Judaism. As they told their stories from their own viewpoints, this author tried to better understand their subjective experiences and the meaning they ascribed to these experiences, thus enlightening our understanding of the conversion process. A six-stage process is proposed and tasks that one must complete at each step are outlined. The steps are (1) Lack of Connection with Childhood Religion; (2) Questioning of Beliefs; (3) Exploration and "Discovery" of Judaism; (4) Commitment; (5) Adjustment to Jewish Life; and (6) Jewish Identity. This process is compared with models on how immigrants adjust to a new culture, and models on the "coming out" experiences of gay and lesbian individuals. In addition, the experiences of people who convert primarily for religious reasons are compared with people who convert primarily for marital and/or family reasons. The latter had a more difficult adjustment.;Theories on developmental stages of adulthood and identity formation are utilized to help understand and "make sense" of these findings. Age at conversion clustered around two developmental stages. One was the early twenties which coincides with Erikson's "Identity v. diffusion" crisis and the "Intimacy v. isolation" crisis. A second cluster was the late thirties, which is the beginning of the mid-life stage. It is suggested that conversion at these times assisted with resolution of developmental tasks for the research participants.