[Avodah] "kula" for gerim of patrilineal descent?

[Seth & Sheri Kadish]

>>I heard that there is a teshuva by Rav Moshe Feinstein that the child
of a Jewish father and non-Jewish mother can be encouraged to
convert.  Does anyone know where I could find this teshuva?  What are
the halachic sources for this approach?

This is a shittah that has been held by many poskim in modern times, ever
since intermarriage became prevalent in Western societies. I didn't remember
that is was also davka in a teshuva of Rav Moshe, but then again I haven't
reviewed this in quite a while and I wouldn't be surprised... :-)

For halakhic sources, the absolute best is the two volume compendium of
sources on giyyur published by Yeshivat Or Etzion (not to be confused with
Har Etzion). The first volume collects mekorot on giyyur in cases of
intermarriage, and the second volume on giyyur of the children of
intermarriage ("zera yisrael"). The second volume was published recently,
and I haven't seen it yet (so I can't look anything up). Note that these
volumes collect nearly every relevant makor, from all perspectives, but
nothing more than that.

In any case, the concept that we encourage the conversion of "zera yisrael"
was most famously held by Rav Uzziel, the Rishon le-Tzion in the time of Rav
Kook and later. In terms of the mekorot that I do have at hand at the
moment, see Shu"t Piskei Uzziel be-She'elot ha-Zeman 65, as well as Shu"t
Rav Azriel Hildesheimer vol. 1, Yoreh Deah 229. The conversion courts of the
Israeli Chief Rabbinate encourage giyyur in these cases based on this
shittah.

You also might be intersted in Meir Uzziel's relflections on his
grandfather's legacy regarding this matter. He wrote a very moving piece
(without making judgements on it one way or another) found here:

http://www.nrg.co.il/online/archive/ART/524/266.html

Seth (Avi) Kadish

סימני ספר המידות - ארחות צדיקים
http://www.seforimonline.org/seforim7.html (#169-172)

הקהילה היהודית הפתוחה
http://www.makorrishon.co.il/show.asp?id=7467

מדריך לקריאת נביאים וכתובים
A Guide to Reading Nevi'im & Ketuvim
http://skadish1.googlepages.com/guide