Haim Amsalem
The Seed of IsraelWednesday, January 26, 2011 by Aryeh Tepper | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
Until modern times, the boundaries of Jewish identity were cut and dried. If you were born to a Jewish mother, or if you were a convert according to Jewish religious law (halakhah), you were Jewish. If not, you weren't.
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The Mitzvah of Conversion Haim Amsalem, Institute for Jewish Ideas. It is not only permissible but a mitzvah, the Sepharic rabbi argues, to make it easy for people of Jewish ancestry—like Israel’s Russian immigrants—to convert to Judaism.