Customer Reviews

Converting to Judaism - Choosing to Be Chosen : Personal Stories

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The book is very fast moving with personal testament from people who converted to Judaism. Some of these people wanted to create a more spiritual environment for the spouse and future family. Some never found meaning in their own religion. I think that the interesting part is that the stories are so personal and real. It's possible to relate.

Though I converted entirely for myself, as did Ezra and Elizabeth, and had already been Jewish for going on ten years when I finally met my (extremely non-observant) beshert, this book really helped me to understand what goes on in the mind, heart, and soul of a fellow JBC who converted for the sake of a romantic relationship. I once felt that converting just for marriage is a very insincere reason, but the people in this book aren't like that at all. There wasn't the mindset that was much more common a few decades ago, "Ooh, I'm getting married, I have to convert!" Rather, these people were moved to start (or, in some cases, continue) exploring Judaism because of the catalyst of a Jewish love interest. Many of them had been looking for deeper spirituality or the grounding of a religious faith for some time, and had been being led towards Judaism anyway. This book also helped me to understand how the Jewish partners came to be interdating in the first place. While I remain 100% against interdating and intermarriage, and am sad that so many people nowadays think it's no big deal to date people who aren't co-religionists, I came to see that these people weren't doing it out of self-hating reasons or because they deliberately wanted to marry a non-Jew and risk having their descendants lost to their birthright. Typically, most of the Jewish partners weren't very observant to begin with, and were more "culturally" Jewish than religiously so, but they still had a very strong sense of peoplehood and the need to pass that on to their future kids. The fact that many of them drew their partners into a much deeper and committed level of observance also gives me hope that someday I'll be able to bring my non-observant beshert to a deeper level of religiosity for the sake of our own future child(ren)! I think my favorite story was that of Ellen, the Japanese-American, and Joshua, who started out very unobservant but then became the driving force in them moving beyond just the Conservative Movement into Modern Orthodoxy. The story of Susan and Rob also had personal meaning for me, as Rob is a Kohein and had to work through his personal feelings (based on his parents being Orthodox and one of his brothers being an Orthodox rabbi) on the traditional ban on a Kohein marrying a giyoret (based on the offensive and severely outdated notion that someone from a foreign background was sexually suspect and not the pure untouched virgin bride required of a Kohein). My own intended may also be a Kohein (we're not sure, but we're going to do some research), and I know that I had some inner difficulties in the beginning because, in spite of not being Orthodox, I'd always taken to heart the concept of a giyoret being forbidden to a Kohein (even though I was 100% virgin till I met him, which are the requirements anyway). This book is sure to have something for everyone.