There was an article in Arutz Sheva's daily email by R. Eliezer Melamed, Head of Yeshivat Har Bracha .
The rabbi writes about how the Torah expects Jews to treat converts.
But what the Torah demands and what actually happens are often - too often - far different things.
Let's "assume" that the conversion is done strictly according to halacha.
Which means that the convert convinced a rabbi that his, or her. desire to take on more than the 7 Noahide commandments is sincere.
The convert, if a male, is circumcised or, if already circumcised, undergoes a dam brit.
The convert then, under supervision, immerses in the mikveh.
At that point, most authorities accept the person as a Jew.
According to Rambam (Moses ben Maimon or Maimonides), the potential "new Jew" need not know all 613 commandments and the potential "new Jew" need not promise - on pain of having the conversion revoked - to practice all 613 commandments. This, in any case, is an impossibility.
Since the new Jew is not a cohen, he cannot bless the kahal as cohanim are commanded to do.
But that's OKI. The cohen, and the levi with him, cannot have a pidyon ha'ben for their first born son, a mitzvah very few men have the privilege of doing. (B"H we are about to have our fourth in the family; are we exceptional? [Of course.] )
Unless the new Jew is a farmer in Israel, most of the agricultural mitzvoth are unavailable to him - or her.
True, a man can light the Shabat candles and a woman may light a hanukiah, but there are commandments that are "sex specific." ("Gender" applies to words; "sex" applies to living things, and that IS "politically correct." See Meriam-Webster Online, below.)
In reality,
* We have rabbis who won't accept any conversion other than their own
* We have rabbis who expect the new Jew to be "more Jewish" than the average (if there is such a person) "Orthodox" Jew - but whose "orthodoxy?" Litvak, Polish, German? What about Sephardim and Mizrachim who really don't HAVE an "orthodoxy" per se; rather they have levels of observance, none of which abrogates a person's Jewishness.
* Do the extreme "Orthodox" declare harim (excommunication) on a born Jew who fails to keep kosher? Who drives on Shabat? Who dishonors his parents, living or dead?
Hardly, but a new Jew who either never learned all the applicable mitzvoth or who, for whatever reason, reduced his or her level of observance - THAT person will have the conversion revoked by Israel's rabbis.
Rabbinical double standard.
In many synagogues, new Jews are treated differently.
Some "born Jews" never accept the new Jew. After all, the "accident of birth" Jew who may be a total ignoramus when it comes to things Jewish, considers the new Jew to be less knowledgeable because they are late comers to the club.
Never mind that while the new Jew may not fully appreciate matzah balls and herring in cream - or hamin and mabukah - he new Jew may know more, often substantially more, than the "accident of birth" Jew.
Few "real" Jews know that they are prohibited from even raising the issue of conversion with a new Jew. If the new Jew wants to discuss the subject, well and good, but unless the new Jew opens the subject, the "real Jew" can't go there.
Pity the poor new Jew who is "different." A different color skin. Different facial features.
Israelis learned - some not willingly - that Jews come in all shapes, sizes, and colors.
American Ashkenazi Jews are still having problems with people who are different, especially the absence or abundance of melanin. Sefardim and Mizrachim generally are more tolerant.
What the Torah demands of us regarding new Jews, and what really is the new Jews' situation are, unfortunately, often distant from each other.
We should be ashamed.
Merriam-Webster On line's
Definition of SEX
1: either of the two major forms of individuals that occur in many species and that are distinguished respectively as female or male especially on the basis of their reproductive organs and structures
2: the sum of the structural, functional, and behavioral characteristics of organisms that are involved in reproduction marked by the union of gametes and that distinguish males and females
3a: sexually motivated phenomena or behavior
Definition of GENDER
1a: a subclass within a grammatical class (as noun, pronoun, adjective, or verb) of a language that is partly arbitrary but also partly based on distinguishable characteristics (as shape, social rank, manner of existence, or sex) and that determines agreement with and selection of other words or grammatical forms
b: membership of a word or a grammatical form in such a subclass c: an inflectional form showing membership in such a subclass
