Seneca the anti-Semite complained that the entire Roman Empire smelled of Shabbat candles. An optimistic account puts the number of Jews at 9 million, a fifth of the empire’s population. Several factors accounted for that success: widespread cynicism about anthropomorphous religions with corrupt priests, the polytheist habit of experimenting with new deities, and Jewish influence (as usual, against the background of the extreme poverty of most Jews).

The most important factor was the rabbis’ accepting attitude. We have no reason to doubt the gospel’s account of rabbis “traversing sea and earth to find a single convert.” That activity was complemented with the special status of God-fearers, semi-Jews who accepted a few basic commandments—many more than a typical Reform “rabbi.” The concept of a semi-Jew is rooted in the Torah: the gerim—the word is grossly mistranslated as “strangers”—were just such quasi-converts. They were forbidden pagan practices and more or less everything else prohibited to Jews.

It was not only the Temple’s destruction that enabled the Pharisaic rabbis to succeed over the Sadducean Temple priests; the Essenes, a similarly Temple-conscious sect, survived without the Temple. The rabbis managed to draw wealthy and influential pagans as God-fearers, and thus became the Jewish voice in the pagan world. Eventually the rabbis expanded their position from being Jewish representatives in official pagan circles to also being the empire’s representatives to the Jews. Thus rabbinical Judaism became the official sect recognized by pagan powers.

In the modern world, rabbis have taken political place of the Sadducees: ultra-conservative and unwilling to expand Judaism, in the Diaspora they fall behind the Reform movement. That situation is especially regrettable when the world is poised to embrace Judaism. Even among Christians, plenty of people question the anthropomorphous father-son relationship and prefer to worship an abstract God without images. They will not become Jewish, but a lot of them can embrace basic commandments which, according to the letter of the gospels, are also binding on Christians.

The unholy merger between the rabbinical establishment and the state—which was decried by Rambam—merged the religious and political definitions of Jewishness. Rabbis fought for their right to determine Jewishness, but the backside of it is that any adherent of Judaism is allowed into Israel. Thus we’ve got 140,000 Ethiopians here. Even supposing they truly adhere to Judaism, which most of them do not, they cannot be considered Jewish in a national-political sense. Fearing a massive influx of third-world immigrants into Israel, rabbis put unreasonable strictures on conversion.

Rather, a distinction should be made between Jewish people and adherents to Judaism. Rabbis recognized that distinction and banned proselytes from marrying Jews. Converts should be encouraged and Jewish efforts at proselytism expanded. We need more supporters around the world. If they don’t want to circumcise, fine, recognize them as God-fearers. After four generations, when they lose their pagan roots, then adherents can become Jewish. Those who have been with us for four generations can be considered a part of our people.

This both simplifies and restricts intermarriage. Suppose we return to an earlier rabbinical practice, without basis in the Torah, which regarded children of intermarriage as dubiously Jewish and allowed them to marry other such questionable Jews only. This way, all intermarried families are legalized without conversion, but for one to four generations they can only marry among themselves. Once their commitment to Jewish life is time-tested, they are welcome. This might not be the most just treatment, but it is perhaps the simplest and most workable on a large scale.