Trouble dans la judéité. Mariages mixtes, conversions et frontières de l'identité juive

Abstract

Jewish suspicion towards conversions is usually interpreted as the emphasis on filiation in the definition and in the transmission of Jewish identity. On the contrary, this article attempt to demonstrate that restrictives politics of conversion are conducted in the name of a saintliness politics that imply to link jewishness with the strict observance of the Jewish Law and to relegate filiation to a position of secondary importance. Conversely, the more inclusive conversion politics would be justified by the intention of clarify Jewish boundaries in the double context of intermarriages increment and progressive disinvolvement with Jewish observance, even if it means negotiating with religious principles.