The Conversion of Minors

A beit din can convert minors. Therefore, when parents come to convert and ask to convert their children with them, the beit din converts their children. And although conversion depends on the decision of the convert, and children who have not yet reached the age of mitzvot lack the mature judgment to make such a fateful decision, since it is in the child’s interest to be of the same religion as his parents, who are responsible for him and care for him, the beit din converts the minor on the basis of his parents’ consent (Ketubot 11a; SA 268:7).

A beit din can convert a minor even when the parents do not wish to convert themselves but want the beit din to convert their child, or when the child decided on his own initiative that he wants to convert and his parents come before the beit din to express their consent. For since accepting Judaism is, as a rule, something good and a privilege for the child, if the beit din assesses that the conversion will indeed be a privilege for him, it converts him on the authority of the beit din. For just as “one may confer a benefit on a person in his absence” (zakhin le-adam she-lo be-fanav), and accordingly one may transfer gifts to a minor and grant him things that will benefit him, so a beit din is permitted to bring a minor into the covenant with God when in its assessment this is for the minor’s good.

Similarly, in times and places where there were abandoned children, if such a child came and asked to convert, the beit din could convert him. Likewise, when Jews wish to adopt an abandoned infant and ask to convert him, since it is a privilege to be Jewish, and it is also in the infant’s interest to be Jewish like his adoptive parents, the beit din may accede to their request and convert the child (Shevet Mi-Yehuda vol. 2, YD 29; Mishpetei Shaul 1, sha’ar 4, 38).

However, the beit din should not seek out children in order to convert them, and all the more so one should not convert children against their will. Even where Jews rule, non-Jewish children are not converted by force against their will or against the will of their parents. And if a child was converted against his will, his conversion is void (Baḥ and Shakh 268:16).^¹

In the case of a child of an intermarriage, when the Jewish father wants to convert his child and the non-Jewish mother objects, many say that we listen to the mother, for since the child is a non-Jew, according to halakha the father is not considered his father. And some say that the father too has the authority to bring him [for conversion]; however, if the mother objects to his conversion, it is often preferable not to convert him, for as a result of her objection to his conversion she will insist on raising him to hate Judaism.^²