In the NY Times latest article on Reform Judaism's new efforts to make conversion attractive for non-Jewish spouses of mixed marriages, one Reform rabbi seems to not understand what the Lubavitchers' Chabad movement is all about.

It also clashes with a longstanding aversion among many Jews to anything resembling proselytizing. "I have the inherent Jewish struggle," said Rabbi Jeffrey J. Sirkman, leader of the Larchmont congregation. "It's that inner struggle of knowing that we want to reach out there as much as we can. At the same time, we don't want to appear to be the Lubavitch," referring to the Orthodox sect of Hasidic Jews known for its aggressive outreach programs, especially focusing on nonobservant Jews.

"I'm not going to be standing at the corner," he added, "asking people if they are Jewish."

Let me see if I understand - it's OK to let Jews marry non-Jews in the hopes that afterwards their non-Jewish spouses can be subtly convinced that they should change their entire belief system, but it's not OK for Jews to convince other people who are already Jews to become more observant. That sure makes a lot of sense.

(And they certainly wouldn't want those newly converted Jews to step-up their observance either I imagine.)