Is conversion a ‘colonization of consciousness’?

Roberts, Nathaniel

doi:10.1177/1463499612469583

Cited by 24 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 53 publications

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“…This account contributes to conversion studies. It builds on works that discuss religious conversion in political terms (among many others, see Keane ; Roberts ; Van der Veer ). These and other studies demonstrate, across varied contexts, how religious conversion becomes enmeshed within legislative logics, national anxieties, and bureaucratic practices (Fernandes ; Kravel‐Tovi ; Marzouki ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Shouldering the Weight of the State: Religious Zionist Citizenship, National Responsibility, and Jewish Conversion in Israel

Kravel-Tovi

2018

PoLAR

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Based on ethnographic fieldwork conducted with Jewish conversion agents and activists in Israel between 2004 and 2007, this article argues that state-run Jewish conversion provides a constructive institutional arena for religious Zionists to rework their active citizenship, in both the Israeli state and the religious Zionism movement. To the extent that Israel offers a compelling case for understanding how and why the politics of religious conversion intersect with the legal and bureaucratic dynamics of the modern nation-state, it also allows us to unpack the identity work of those who take it upon themselves to embody the morals and ambitions of the Jewish state. I draw on anthropological writing on the state and citizenship to argue that, by working institutionally on behalf of the state and investing itself in a goal assumed to secure its future, the religious Zionist community attempts to reaffirm the idea of "national responsibility" -a discursive construct that underwrites its interdependent relationship with the Israeli state. Such a reaffirmation is of particular importance in light of the volatile struggles it has had with and within the state over Israel's political and religious policies. [The nation-state, Citizenship, Religious Conversion, National Responsibility, State Persons, Jewish Conversion, Religious Zionism, Israel]Over the last two decades, Jewish giyyur (conversion) policy in Israel has become popularly identified as a "national mission"-an urgent, Zionist-driven, state-endorsed endeavor. This concept was first formally introduced into the bureaucratic, political, and public discourses on conversion in 2003, when the then prime minister of Israel, Ariel Sharon, used it to frame the conversion of non-Jewish immigrants who had arrived en masse from the former Soviet Union (FSU), naturalizing as Israeli citizens under the expanded repatriation law. Although the involvement of the Israeli state in the conversion of newcomers is not new, it was only in the wake of extensive waves of non-Jewish FSU immigration to Israel in the late 1980s and 1990s that this involvement in Jewish conversion took on the scale and meaning of a highly prioritized, proconversion national mission.Interestingly, the vast majority of conversion agents and activists attending to, and speaking in the name of, Israel's conversion national mission are identified as religious Zionists. Within this rubric, they work as civil servants on behalf of the state's policy, while investing themselves in a goal that they believe will benefit Israel as a Jewish and Zionist state. The dominance of religious Zionism in this framework is reflected in the sociological makeup of the government institutions in charge of conversion (i.e., conversion courts, conversion schools, ritual baths, and various government ministries), as well as at the grassroots level: volunteer rabbis and public figures, nonprofit associations, and the host families and communities who support candidates throughout the conversion process.In this article, I draw atte...

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Shouldering the Weight of the State: Religious Zionist Citizenship, National Responsibility, and Jewish Conversion in Israel

Kravel-Tovi

2018

PoLAR

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“…Fourth, our statistical analysis is skewed towards reasons for conversion that are easy to measure with existing survey questions-which tend to focus on demographics and instrumental reasons for conversion. Yet, some scholars argue that demographic and instrumental theories oversimplify the decision-making process of converts and do not give the reasons converts give for their own conversion sufficient weight (e.g., Roberts 2012). Certainly, converts are often willing to accept large costs (sometimes even violent persecution) to convert and in Latin America neither negative attitudes towards Evangelicals nor violence has prevented conversions (Garrard-Burnett 1998;Smilde 2007;Brusco 2010).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Contexts of Conversion among U.S. Latinos

Ramos

Woodberry

Ellison

2017

Sociology of Religion

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The growth of Protestantism among U.S. Latinos has been the focus of considerable discussion among researchers. Yet few studies investigate how Latino Protestants and Latino Catholics differ, or which types of Latinos convert from Catholicism to Protestantism. Our study tests various theories about why some Latinos convert including a modified version of the semi-involuntary thesis, the national origin hypothesis, and assimilation theory. We use data from a large national sample of U.S. Latinos and find some support for assimilation theory and less for the semi-involuntary thesis. However, context matters. If we divide Latinos into national origin groups, these groups strongly predict who converts and who are lifelong Protestants. We discuss how war may influence the religious composition of early migrants and thus shape both the religious composition and conversion of later migrants.

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“…Under this rubric, scholars have explored the choice to join dominant religions and cultures under the extreme circumstances of political enticements. In this regard, scholars have considered the possibly compromised voluntary nature of conversion (Hefner, 1993; Viswanathan, 1998; Roberts, 2012).…”

Section: Converts By Choicementioning

confidence: 99%

Jews by choice? Orthodox conversion, the problem of choice, and Jewish religiopolitics in the Israeli state

Kravel-Tovi

2017

Ethnography

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Anthropologists have long displayed interest in the tension between choice and coercion in processes of religious conversion. In this article, I draw from ethnographic work in contemporary Israel to explore the ways in which this tension animates pedagogic formations of Orthodox Jewish conversion. I argue that conversion teachers’ concerns are rooted in the tension they identify between the religious ideal scripts of Jewish conversion, as an individual voluntary act, and governing religiopolitical state structures of conversion. I show how teachers insist on the image of the willing convert, while simultaneously considering, albeit with limited effect, the withered resonance that these images hold in the lived experience of their students. By contextualizing and analyzing the ‘problem of choice’ besetting conversion teachers, this article sheds light on some of the underlying forces that influence how non-Jews become Jews in the Jewish state.

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Is conversion a ‘colonization of consciousness’?

Cited by 24 publications

References 53 publications

Shouldering the Weight of the State: Religious Zionist Citizenship, National Responsibility, and Jewish Conversion in Israel

Shouldering the Weight of the State: Religious Zionist Citizenship, National Responsibility, and Jewish Conversion in Israel

The Contexts of Conversion among U.S. Latinos

Jews by choice? Orthodox conversion, the problem of choice, and Jewish religiopolitics in the Israeli state

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