Live

Despite some legal and ethical concerns, single women should not be prohibited from becoming pregnant with donor sperm.

The major codes of Jewish law forbid actions that hasten death, but some allow the removal of impediments to death.

In Israel, even the musical is political.

In Israel some believe that Orthodox control of conversion is impeding efforts to convert immigrants from the Former Soviet Union.

Conversion waxes and wanes, based on the historical and national circumstances of the Jews.

The evolution of Israel as a nation into Judaism as a religion was paralleled by a move from assimilation of strangers to a more formal idea of conversion.

Jewish attitudes toward conversion began to change as spouses of non-Jews remained loyal to Judaism and more converts chose Judaism.

In the face of persecution and legal restriction, codifiers of Jewish law chose survival over proselytization.

As both symbol and expression of the profound change required of a convert to Judaism, the mikveh (mikvah) is often a deeply emotional experience.

With the ritual bath's echoes of sexuality and its demand for self-abnegation, the prospect of immersion can create some trepidation for the prospective convert.

According to some Hasidic thinkers, human free will is an illusion; God causes all human actions.

While the early Reform movement presented selected universal, liberal moral teachings as the core of Judaism, the contemporary Reform movement is rediscovering many particularistic Jewish practices.