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 attempts to demonstrate that restrictive politics of conversion are conducted in the name of a “politics of sanctity” that lends itself to a linkage of 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 to clarify Jewish boundaries in the double context of the growing number of intermarriages and progressive disinvolvement with Jewish observance.