Question

I am seriously dating a young woman who tells me that she, along with her family, converted to Judaism when she was younger. Now, I am contemplating asking her to marry me, however, in several instances she has demonstrated an obvious lack of knowledge about our religion. It is very important to me that I marry a Jewish woman so that my children will be Jewish. I do not know her family because she does not speak to them for reasons that are too complicated to list here. Anyway, she showed me her supposed "certificate of conversion" and I want to know if it's legit. Is there such a thing as a certificate of conversion, and if so, what should it look like? I know this seems petty, but if she has not converted, I would want to make sure she does so before we marry.

Answer

You are correct that it would be a bad idea to marry a woman who is not properly
Jewish, in which case your children would be stigmatized and would themselves be
unable to marry Jews, etc.

According to the Code of Jewish Law (the "Shulchan Aruch"), there
are three requirements for a valid conversion:

1) Mikveh - All converts must immerse in the Mikveh - a ritual
bath linked to a reservoir of rain water.

2) Milah - Male converts must undergo circumcision by a qualified
"Mohel." If he was previously circumcised by a doctor, he then
undergoes a ritual called "hatafas dam."

3) Mitzvot - This is the clincher. The convert must believe in
God and the divinity of the Torah, as well as accept upon himself
to observe all 613 mitzvot (commandments) of the Torah. This
includes observance of Shabbat, Kashrut, etc. -- as detailed in
the Code of Jewish Law, the authoritative source for Jewish
observance. This means that a motor vehicle is not used on
Shabbat, that cheese is eaten only with kosher supervision, that
a woman uses the mikveh every month, that hands are ritually
washed before every bread meal, that the status of a Kohen is
preserved, and much much more.

All of the above must be done before a court of three Jewish men who
themselves believe in God, accept the divinity of the Torah, and observe the
mitzvot. In the case of someone who denies fundamental principles of Jewish
belief (such as, the word for word divinity of the Torah), or offers to perform the
conversion without requiring full mitzvah observance, the conversion would be
invalid according to the Code of Jewish Law.

So my advice is to find out who is the rabbi who did the conversion, and then
check out how it was done. My hunch, however, is that if the girl and her family
are not in any way observant, the conversion probably was not valid from the
start.