Orthodox Judaism
Article
Orthodox Judaism is a recurring concept in the Astral Codex Ten archive, appearing 2 times across 2 issues between April 21, 2021 and August 12, 2025. The archive places it in contexts such as “Why Are So Many Christians In [Colombia] Converting To Orthodox Judaism?”; “Still, Orthodox Judaism? The articles linked above talk about why Mormonism and Pentecostalism are winning converts”; “Maybe I could learn Hebrew and convert to Orthodox Judaism”. It most often appears alongside Latter-day Saints, Mormons, United States.
Metadata
- Category: Concepts
- Mention count: 2
- Issue count: 2
- First seen: April 21, 2021
- Last seen: August 12, 2025
Appears In
- No, Really, Why Are So Many Christians In Colombia Converting To Orthodox Judaism?
- Highlights From The Comments On Liberalism And Communities
Related Pages
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- Latter-day Saints (2 shared issues)
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- Mormons (2 shared issues)
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- United States (2 shared issues)
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- All Who Go Not Return (1 shared issues)
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- Amica Terra (1 shared issues)
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- Amish (1 shared issues)
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- Amish (1 shared issues)
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- Andes Mountains (1 shared issues)
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- Antiochan subgroup (1 shared issues)
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- Argentina (1 shared issues)
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- Ariel (1 shared issues)
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- Arkansas (1 shared issues)
External Links
Source Context
Recovered passages from the original issue text. When the raw archive preserved outbound links inside the source passage, they are listed directly under the quote.
I enjoyed reading a recent Washington Post article, subtitled Why Are So Many Christians In [Colombia] Converting To Orthodox Judaism? It had good interviews and beautiful photos. The only thing it lacked was any explanation of why so many Christians in Colombia were converting to Orthodox Judaism, unless you count explanations like these:
“It was a calling of the soul,” Devorah Guilah Koren, who converted from Catholicism with her husband and two children, told me. “More than a religion, [Orthodox Judaism] was a way of thinking and conduct that satisfied all of our needs.”
Before we start - are we sure this is happening to any significant degree? On the one hand, no it isn’t, the article mentions seven synagogues’ worth of converts, and gives us some other information we can use to estimate synagogues at a few hundred people, so probably only 2500 - 5000 Jewish converts total in a country of 50 million. But it does suggest the new converts equal or outnumber traditional (ie hereditary) Colombian Jews. And also, nobody ever converts to Orthodox Judaism! Or, like, one or two people will, here or there, but it’s deliberately really hard, and has few obvious attractions. I don’t want to claim this is some massive important trend, but it’s unusual and worth exploring.
If I wanted to be in a very strong community, I don’t think there’s any way to just “expend effort” and make it happen. Maybe I could learn Hebrew and convert to Orthodox Judaism, but there are lots of reasons not to do that besides just laziness (plus one extra reason for people who aren’t already circumcised!) If I wanted a community of the “ten normal-ish families on a suburban block raising children together” variety, this seems about as tough as founding a new company, in the sense that you need to be creative, agentic, and willing to risk everything falling apart.