If you are reading this, something has been pulling at you for a while. Maybe a long while.
Maybe you are partnered with a Jewish person and you want to share their tradition fully. Maybe you discovered Jewish ancestry late in life. Maybe you have been reading Jewish books for years and finally cannot pretend it is just intellectual curiosity. Maybe you walked into a synagogue once and something in your chest said: home.
Whatever brought you here, conversion is possible. And — perhaps a surprise — it can be done online.
Is Online Conversion Real Conversion?
Yes. At Sim Shalom, online conversion is supervised by an ordained rabbi, includes a full course of study, requires real commitment, and ends with the same traditional elements that have marked Jewish conversion for millennia: a beit din (rabbinic court), formal acceptance of mitzvot, mikveh (ritual immersion), and the giving of a Hebrew name.
The student does the work. The rabbi knows the student personally. The community welcomes the new Jew. Nothing about the medium dilutes the meaning.
Why People Choose Online Conversion
The pragmatic answer: because the in-person path is often closed.
There is no synagogue within driving distance. The local rabbi requires a year of in-person attendance the student cannot manage because of work, family, illness, or geography. The local Jewish community is small and the student wants more privacy than a small community can offer. The student is exploring quietly and is not yet ready to walk into a building.
The deeper answer: because Judaism does not live in a building. It lives in the people who carry it. If a serious student wants to become a serious Jew, and a serious rabbi is willing to teach them, the work can happen anywhere two cameras can find each other.
The Sim Shalom Conversion Process
The process generally takes between six and twelve months, depending on the student’s pace, background, and prior study. Here is what it looks like.
- An initial conversation. A video meeting with the rabbi. We talk about what brought you here, what you already know, what worries you, and what you hope for. There is no commitment yet on either side.
- A course of study. Reading, weekly meetings, and learning across the core areas: Jewish theology, Torah, Jewish history, holidays and lifecycle, prayer and liturgy, Hebrew basics, the State of Israel, antisemitism, and the ethical heart of Jewish life. Curriculum is tailored to your starting point.
- Living Jewishly. Throughout the study, you are not just reading — you are practicing. Lighting Shabbat candles. Attending services at Sim Shalom. Trying the holidays. Putting the tradition through its paces in your actual life.
- The beit din. When you are ready, you sit with a beit din — three rabbis — who ask you about your journey, your understanding, and your commitment. This is a conversation, not an exam. It is a Jewish tradition with a thousand years of dignity behind it, and it is honored online with the same gravity it is honored in person.
- Mikveh. Ritual immersion in a body of natural water. Many students go to a local mikveh. Some, in places where no mikveh is available, immerse in the ocean or another natural body of water with witnesses present. This is permitted by Jewish law and has been throughout history.
- Acceptance and naming. You take your Hebrew name. You become a Jew, fully and forever. Mazel tov.
What Sim Shalom Conversion Does Not Require
We do not require you to renounce respect for your previous tradition. We require you to commit to Judaism as yours from this point forward.
We do not require you to live in any particular place.
We do not require you to be married to a Jewish person, single, partnered, or anything else. Your relationships are yours.
We do not require you to look, sound, or come from any particular background. Jews look like everyone.
What About Recognition?
A Sim Shalom conversion is recognized by Jewish Universalist communities and by many Reform and Reconstructionist congregations. It is not recognized by Orthodox authorities, which is true of any non-Orthodox conversion. We are honest with prospective students about this from day one.
If recognition by the Israeli rabbinate or by Orthodox communities is essential to your life plans, we will tell you so directly and help you think about your options.
Who Should Consider This Path
People who are serious. People who can do the reading. People who can show up week after week. People who understand that conversion is not a credential but a covenant.
Age does not matter. Background does not matter. Geography does not matter.
What matters is whether, when you think about being Jewish for the rest of your life, something in you settles.
How to Start
Reach out through simshalom.com and ask for a conversation about conversion. We will set up a time to meet. From there, we will see where it goes.
There is no application fee. There is no pressure. There is just a door, and an invitation to come and look around.