ABSTRACT
The aim of the research which informs this chapter explores and elucidates the theology of giyur and analyses the implications of various conceptualizations of giyur prevalent in the Orthodox Jewish world for Jewish theology in a broader sense. The chapter aimed initially to work with the responses of 30 interviewees, from both Britain and Israel, finally, was able to interview only a smaller sample of British converts. On the most fundamental level, research was driven by two questions: First, Whether giyur provides a mechanism by which a non-Jew becomes fully Jewish - indistinguishable from a person who is Jewish by birth. Secondly, Whether the enacted theology of giyur - the process through which someone who is not Jewish by descent becomes, Jewish - shed light on contemporary discussion of the nature of Jewish ness. The paradigm of giyur which Sagi and Zohar urge, is one which provides for the ritual absorption of the non-Jew into the body of am Israel.
