SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — THE recent arrest of an Orthodox rabbi in Washington, who was charged with having watched women showering via a hidden camera installed at the mikvah, or ritual bath, at his synagogue, has drawn attention to the challenges faced by potential converts to Judaism. The scandal put a spotlight on the near-total control exercised by the rabbi over converts into the Jewish faith. The system lacks oversight. It leaves those wanting to become Jews vulnerable to exploitation.

The Jewish tradition has shunned the proselytizing propensities of our Abrahamic cousins, Christianity and Islam, but in doing so, it has seemed, to some, to embrace an ethos of exclusion. The fact that anyone with the drive and perspicacity to convert is allowed to do so is one of the most important checks on the Jewish conception of chosenness; being Jewish is not a genetic condition, but a complex hierarchy of identity and choice.

In theory, Judaism is an inclusive religion that is willing to welcome individuals who desire to become Jewish. The reality is far more complicated. The Israeli chief rabbinate rejects conversions it deems un-Orthodox. This includes Jews of less strict streams, like the Reform and Conservative movements in the United States, and also some Orthodox converts around the world.

Not long ago, Israel passed legislation that intended to make Jewish conversions less difficult. The bill’s final form, however, gave the chief rabbinate control over the approval of all conversion certificates; this compromise will result only in more bureaucratic mix-ups and disagreements about the converts’ legitimacy — and their right to invoke the Law of Return, by which countless Jews have found safe haven and refuge in Israel.