In the story “The Conversion of the Jews,” Roth explores a major milestone in the conversion of the Jews to Christianity in a step by step process that entails the development of a conflict between the two major characters, Rabbi Binder and Oscar Freedman. Surprisingly, these character names are suggestive. While the name ‘Rabbi’ means ‘teacher,’ a name associated with Jesus Christ, the name ‘Freedman’ is suggestive of somebody who has been freed from some suffering. Binder and Oscar’s conflict are because of their different beliefs in the power and existence of God and his son, Jesus Christ. The conflict develops more when Binder slaps Oscar and Oscar run on top of the synagogue and threatens to throw himself down. The events that happen while Oscar was on top of the synagogue lead to the power shift from Binder to Oscar, leaving Oscar a hero.

The step-wise process of the power shift between Oscar and Rabbi Binder starts off when Oscar becomes bitter, discontented and disturbed by Binders’s insistence that God was not as powerful as to have given Jesus a virgin birth. Indeed, Oscar became more irritated by the double-standards portrayed by Binder. Indeed, Oscar wondered why Binder considered Jews as “The chosen people,” yet the declaration of independence had declared all people equal (Roth, 1992, P. 2). To portray his double standards, Rabbi Binder kept explaining to Oscar what Oscar considered to be out of context, insisting that what he wanted to know “was different” (Roth, 1992, P. 2). An example is on the issue of the plane crash that had killed fifty-eight people, with eight or nine of them being Jews. Binder would cook his theories to explain why the Jews would have to die in a plane crash with other people, yet they were a chosen generation. He kept referring to Jesus as “being historical,” explanations that added to the irritation of Oscar. Oscar felt that Binder considered him to be simple-minded and stupid, a thought that psyched him with more energy to fight for what he believed.

The Powershift further escalated after the events that led to Oscar’s ascension to the roof where he threatened to jump down crushing himself. The events were so tense, and Oscar was very irritated at the teacher’s insistence historical nature of Jesus. Oscar rubbed off Binder’s insistence thus: “You don’t know! You don’t know anything about God.” (Roth, 1992, P. 4).pondering over what he was going through while on the roof, and thinking about self-control, ‘he felt peace and he felt power” (Roth, 1992, P. 5).

Go ahead.Ozz, jump” (Roth, 1992, P. 7). At some point, it seemed a battle for supremacy, or a battle for followers, as some people in the crowd joined Binder to plead with Oscar to come down, while others encouraged him to jump down, much to the disappointment of Binder, Mrs. Freedman, and the sympathizers. The events went up as if controlled by some supernatural power since Oscar did not have any plan to jump down. However, the idea of jumping down was coming from the

Reference

Roth, P. (1992). The conversion of the Jews (Short Stories Series).North Mankato, MN: Creative Education.