Being a Jew of Muslim Descent, a Problematic Identity

Joelle Allouche-Benayoun investigates the “problematic identity” of Muslims having converted to Judaism in France. In her article, the cases of conversion are based on two sorts of sources: testimony in the digital Jewish press (the internet), studying conversion files, and interviews carried out with Muslim men and women who converted or are in the process of converting to Judaism. In the presently taut context of Judeo-Muslim relations, converted men and women stand by their choice in the name of what they call their “ideological proximity” to Judaism – or to Jews – but they also express their rejection of, or their intention to keep away from, “Islamic excesses”.