Rabbi Yitzhok Adlerstein writes:
Colleagues in Dallas (otherwise known as the buckle of the Bible Belt) report a greater number of applicants who left full-blown involvement with other faiths because they came to reject their assumptions and underpinnings.
While many of these become fervent, model practicing Jews, batei din have learned to exercise caution in regard to this brand of seeker. Some are what might be called “religious tourists,” sampling a new faith long enough to genuinely convince themselves that they believe in it, but tiring of it after a few years, after which they move on to the next religion. Conversion courts try to determine whether the candidates in front of them are really love-struck with Yiddishkeit, or merely in the grips of an infatuation.
Importation from Medellin, Columbia, may change the picture. And we don’t mean cocaine. The remarkable story of the conversion to haredi Judaism of literally hundreds of people there is the subject of media interest over the last years, including a recent riveting account in California Sunday Magazine.
Cocaine actually does contribute to the story. Especially the prevalence of death and despair in Bello, a northern suburb of Medellin that was once the capital of assassins in the employ of Pablo Escobar. That is where the story of the two protagonists starts. It wends its way through fascinating by-ways before its happy conclusion. Along the way we encounter religions gone bad; Israel as a kind of rehab therapy for Central American gang leaders; rejection of the spiritual seekers by the established “uptown” Jews in Medellin (who are Jewish culturally, but not observant, and eventually are upstaged by the converts); supporting roles of the Diaspora Yeshiva and Shavei Yisrael, the Israeli organization that advocates on behalf of dozens of “lost” Jewish communities around the world.
There is more here than another feel-good story.
Millions throughout Latin America have abandoned Catholicism, the faith of their parents. For almost 500 years, the church had maintained a monopoly on their souls. In the 1960s, 90 percent of the population was Catholic. That figure has now dropped to 69 percent. Most of the apostates moved toward evangelicalism, but a smaller, less visible cohort chose Judaism. There are at least 60 communities at different stages of conversion throughout Latin America. Most have come to Judaism without knowing about the others.
The Jews of Bello are the best organized, but they are not the only group that has transitioned from Catholicism to evangelicalism to Judaism. There are at least 60 such communities at different stages of conversion in Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, El Salvador, the Dominican Republic, Venezuela, Ecuador, Peru, Brazil, Chile, and Bolivia. Even in Colombia, Bello is not unique. Thirty similar communities have emerged across the country. Some are just starting; others have been practicing for years.
They have come to Judaism separately, most without knowing about the others. Some converted out of a desire to pursue something original. Some found Judaism during their biblical studies. Others were attracted by the allure of Israel as a world power and the social prestige of Jewish identity as one of economic privilege.
