Progressively Speaking: Shavuot tells us to celebrate Jews in all our diversity
search

The latest Jewish News

Read this week’s digital edition

Click Here
Analysis

Progressively Speaking: Shavuot tells us to celebrate Jews in all our diversity

Student rabbi Lev Taylor takes a topical issue and looks at a Reform response

Jewish woman says the blessing upon lighting the sabbath candles before shabbat eve dinner.
Jewish woman says the blessing upon lighting the sabbath candles before shabbat eve dinner.

At the upcoming festival of Shavuot, we read the story of Ruth. According to rabbinic tradition, Ruth was a convert to Judaism. 

When her husband died, Ruth told her mother-in-law, Naomi: “Your people will be my people and your God will be my God.” Naomi welcomed her into the Jewish fold and taught her the ways of our people.

When Ruth turned up as a foreign widow in Boaz’s fields, Boaz married her. He made a home for her and showed her kindness. Together they raised a family, and the whole community rejoiced.

But what if these people hadn’t welcomed Ruth? What if Naomi had said: “We don’t take converts”? What if Boaz had said: “You’re not a real Jew”? What if the community had said: “That baby doesn’t look Jewish”?

Scripture tells us the answer. Naomi was the great-grandmother of Jesse, the father of David. There would have been no Davidic kingdom; no King Solomon; no Temple. The Jewish people, as we know it, would not exist. 

The last verses of Ruth are a polemic in favour of accepting converts. We owe the existence of our communities to converts and outsiders. 

Yet, too often, we hear people question others’ Jewish status, try to nullify conversions, or dismiss people for not being Jewish ‘the right way’.

The story of Ruth lets us know that, by excluding people who want to be Jewish, you weaken the whole community. Welcoming converts and ba’alei teshuvah makes us all stronger.

Shavuot is a reminder that nobody has pure lineage, even the great King David. Torah teaches that we left Egypt as a “mixed multitude” and Talmud Kiddushin says that everyone comes from mixed backgrounds.

It’s time to celebrate Jews in all our diversity. 

  •  Lev Taylor is a student rabbi at Leo Baeck College

Support your Jewish community. Support your Jewish News

Thank you for helping to make Jewish News the leading source of news and opinion for the UK Jewish community. Today we're asking for your invaluable help to continue putting our community first in everything we do.

For as little as £5 a month you can help sustain the vital work we do in celebrating and standing up for Jewish life in Britain.

Jewish News holds our community together and keeps us connected. Like a synagogue, it’s where people turn to feel part of something bigger. It also proudly shows the rest of Britain the vibrancy and rich culture of modern Jewish life.

You can make a quick and easy one-off or monthly contribution of £5, £10, £20 or any other sum you’re comfortable with.

100% of your donation will help us continue celebrating our community, in all its dynamic diversity...

Engaging

Being a community platform means so much more than producing a newspaper and website. One of our proudest roles is media partnering with our invaluable charities to amplify the outstanding work they do to help us all.

Celebrating

There’s no shortage of oys in the world but Jewish News takes every opportunity to celebrate the joys too, through projects like Night of Heroes, 40 Under 40 and other compelling countdowns that make the community kvell with pride.

Pioneering

In the first collaboration between media outlets from different faiths, Jewish News worked with British Muslim TV and Church Times to produce a list of young activists leading the way on interfaith understanding.

Campaigning

Royal Mail issued a stamp honouring Holocaust hero Sir Nicholas Winton after a Jewish News campaign attracted more than 100,000 backers. Jewish Newsalso produces special editions of the paper highlighting pressing issues including mental health and Holocaust remembrance.

Easy access

In an age when news is readily accessible, Jewish News provides high-quality content free online and offline, removing any financial barriers to connecting people.

Voice of our community to wider society

The Jewish News team regularly appears on TV, radio and on the pages of the national press to comment on stories about the Jewish community. Easy access to the paper on the streets of London also means Jewish News provides an invaluable window into the community for the country at large.

We hope you agree all this is worth preserving.

read more: