Amy Rule's Conversion
Some commentors at FailedMessiah are questioning the conversion to Judaism prior to their wedding of Rahm Emanuel’s wife, Amy Rule. They are of the “if it’s not Orthodox, it doesn’t count” approach towards conversion. Given that Rahm Emanuel and his family are active members of a Modern-Orthodox synagogue, with children attending a Jewish day school, you’d think there wouldn’t be any doubt. Furthermore, it’s rude (not to mention an actual sin) to remind a convert of their former status as a non-Jew.
For all anyone knows, she could have spent the entire four years from their first date until their wedding day converting and learning more about Judaism. Maybe she had always been drawn towards it in her life, but it wasn’t until dating a Jewish man that she began to seriously look into becoming Jewish. Perhaps she was already converting when they met.
Considering the family’s involvement in Judaism, this clearly was not something undertaken lightly simply so they could get married. Essentially, Amy Rule’s conversion is none of our damn business unless she makes it ours.
(Cross-posted from Celtic Judaism and this LJ version of the blog. Hopefully nobody finds this obnoxious!)