Customer Reviews

Finding a Home for the Soul: Interviews with Converts to Judaism

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

 

 

I picked this book up off the shelves of my local JCC library. Amidst the books on conversion that I've encountered so far, I find it to be the least partisan. It shows a spectrum of conversion experiences from liberal to orthodox, male and female, striaght and gay, white and of colour authors. I found it to be highly articulate.and intimate.

I bring no background knowledge to the matter of conversions to Judaism, so this book helped me to understand a bit about this topic. I read "Finding a Home for the Soul" as a consequence of meeting the author, a wonderful, engaging woman.

As a Roman Catholic, I was most intrigued with descriptions of those Catholics who simply never warmed up to "Jesus" as Messiah and wandered into the orbit of Judaism because of a greater comfort with the notion of one God the Father (excuse me if I am mangling this concept).

My specialty is more the arena of intercultural romance, which "Finding a Home for the Soul" indirectly addresses, as many of these conversions (but not all) occurred as a result of a mixed marriage.

Also intriguing to me are the descriptions of important rituals in the Jewish faith. Sitting Shiva seems an especially valuable exercise that our overall society might think about adopting.

As it is (I think here of funerals for members of my own family), an American funeral is often a wild 24-hour ride through the wake, the funeral and a gathering afterwards. The idea of structuring mourning over a good length of time just seems so human and right.

I would suggest that the book could be improved by a larger type face -- that's the book publisher and designer in me speaking. Overall however kudos for an indepth work with loads of material.

I wanted this book when I first saw it in the bookstore when it was originally published, but balked at the price, and by the time I began to think about finally getting my own copy, it seemed to have gone out of popular circulation. I eventually found a used copy for a much more reasonable price, and it was really worth the wait. I had begun reading it before, and all of the rest of the many personal stories, based on interviews Mrs. Myrowitz had conducted, were just as good. The author herself is a JBC, and shared in the lengthy but quite good introduction her own personal story and journey. Like a number of people profiled here, she too technically converted because she was in a relationship with a Jew, but not in the traditional way one is used to. Instead of undergoing some superficial conversion for no other reason than she was marrying a man who insisted she convert (or whose family ordered her to convert), she had already long been drawn to Judaism and Judaic values anyway, and finding the man who became her husband was more like the catalyst to do something serious about these feelings. Although not all of the JBCs profiled converted for marriage; some, at least at the date of publication, weren't even in relationships. Many people assume the only reason someone would become Jewish (or any other non-Christian religion) is because of an impending marriage, but here we have plenty of stories of people who did it only for themselves, before even being in a relationship, or who still aren't in a relationship period, with either a Jew or a Gentile. And not all of the stories are of white converts; there were some individuals profiled who are African-American, and I loved the story of the woman whose husband was living in France but with Moroccan roots. It's such a myth that Jews are only white and from Eastern or Central Europe. Many things led these people to convert, but overall they prove what is often said, that a JBC is oftentimes more devout, passionate, and committed than many JBBs. I also enjoyed the extensive bibliography and have since read or bought a number of the wonderful books suggested.

I found the stories in this book highly interesting and enjoyed reading the tales of those who have chosen to convert to Judaism. I recommend it for those who are converting or who have relatives who convert. It explains why people choose to convert, the problems that can be associated with converting, and how they dealt with those problems.

Though the book was bulky, the style was for m a bit dry as well, the real prblem I had with it was that I nearly only saw stories of non-orthodox converts. I would not recommend it as an intro to love judaism.....

I was expecting to love this book, since I usually enjoy reading peoples' stories of discovering Judaism. Unfortunately, I found the writing a bit dry and the stories soon unengaging. Somewhere after about half, I gave up--something I rarely do.