#potential convert

[onebluelobster]

Me, trying to learn about Judaism to consider conversion and to learn Hebrew

Every other article: ROSH HASHANNAH FOR CHRISTIANS

JESUS WANTS YOU TO LEARN HEBREW

HOW TO MAKE A SEDER FOR EASTER

WAS JESUS BORN DURING SUKKOT?

It’s ridiculous and I hate it and I’m pissed. Should not be competing and as equally visible as the Jewish sites.

[devorah-batruth]

Every Monday I think to myself, it's not Shabbat and the business week has started. I should stop being a coward and email the rabbi.

Now it's Shabbat again, and I haven't. Again. Bleh.

If I never send the email, I can never properly start the conversion process. If I never send the email, he can never tell me no

This Monday, I will stop being a coward. I will send the email! (I hope)

Have a peaceful Shabbat everyone 💙

[thesequxnce]

ngl jewish ppl ate when they made the talmud. read some excerpts in wise words: jewish thought and stories through the ages by jessica gribetz and shit had me tearing up in my school library😩

[shadowweaver06]

So I guess that one thing that is a bit odd to me (in a good way) is that I actually rather enjoy going to shul on Friday/Saturdays for services.

I... look forward to it. I can't even really explain why very well (or at least I suck at pinpointing why). Maybe it's because I'm exploring things without the constraint of expectations or because I want to be there? Or maybe just because I feel like I'm in the right place and should be there? Maybe it's just the religious equivalent of "new car smell"? I honestly have no idea. The skeptic in me wants to call it the latter... but honestly I don't think I can pin it on that. Not entirely, at any rate.

I equate the feeling I get when I go to services with that sort of feeling you get when you've been away from home for a while and you finally get to walk into your own house and unwind. It's probably a weird euphemism for it. But it makes sense to me so I'm going with it.

The reason I find it odd though is that I am someone who never, as far back as I can remember, enjoyed going to church. Ever. Any of them.

I was raised Catholic (my parents were what I like to jokingly refer to as Trinity Catholics- they observe the holy trinity of Christmas, Easter, and Palm Sunday and you don't see them at Mass outside of those services unless someone's died). It was notable to the point where at when leaving Christmas Midnight Mass, the priest would wave at my folks and say "We'll see you at Easter". But they would make my sister and I attend with my grandparents or my aunt and uncle every week.

I never liked going to church. Certainly, it was not welcoming or anything approaching pleasant for me because of the messages about people like me, but my rampant dislike of going to church started long before I ever started having preteen inklings about where my preferences for future potential life-mates lay. I don't know if it was the excessive put-upon piety of fellow congregants or just my own budding seeds of disagreement with the fundamental tenents of Christian belief and my knee jerk reaction against being told that it was wrong to question things, but I always felt horrifically uncomfortable being there and I bristled at having to dress up and get up early and sit there with my parents who weren't even paying attention, listening to a message that did not resonate for me at *all*.

As I got older... that discomfort got exponentially worse, especially once I realized I was bisexual and that I was primarily attracted to women. Guess that was really kinda my wake up and smell the roses moment, because within the church (and particularly in my small hometown)... that's a metaphorical line in the sand. I realized that I could not reconcile who I was *or* my own beliefs (particularly my fundamental lack of belief in Jesus as the messiah) with those of the Catholic church, particularly because I knew I would never be accepted as I am. I wasn't willing to closet myself or compromise my own views to make my parents *or* the church happy and I walked away from it at 16 before I could be forced to go through with confirmation.

I'm glad that I refused, ultimately... I honestly was really uncomfortable with making a profession of faith in a Christian church when by every definition... I was neither Christian nor even nominally Catholic, other than by virtue of having been baptized and having completed my first communion.

I have never felt comfortable approaching Christian spaces even outside of the Catholic church after I left, despite repeated invitations from well meaning Christian friends. I've had lots of bad experiences in Christian spaces... and that strongly colors my perception of them. I've been met with everything from open derision to "love the sinner, hate the sin" to "you're going to hell, y'know that right?" (And on one particularly memorable occasion, the fundamentalist Baptist preacher at my eldest nephew's wedding decided that their ceremony was the *best* time to deliver a fire and brimstone sermon about the price for living in deliberate sin (and it was obviously aimed squarely at my transgender niece and my wife and I. My niece was in tears at the end of it and I was so pissed off that I refused to sit through the whole thing and I left early to go set up food at the reception).

At this point... Christian spaces are just kind of weird and uncomfortable for me.

I haven't felt any of the creeping sort of uncomfortable dread that I associate with Christian churches when I go to services on the weekends. I've been welcomed openly by the congregation at the synagogue I have been attending. Nobody has questioned my presence beyond some benign curiosity about me as a newcomer. I haven't earned any oddball looks from anyone about my wife, and the sermons have been enlightening. I enjoy the prayers... even if I don't understand and can't read the Hebrew. (I'm reliant entirely on the translation and transliterations to follow along... but that's ok for now). And frankly... I do feel something holy from it. Maybe not in the overwhelming sense that I'm used to hearing about from all the born again Christians I know that spout off about whatever experience they have- but... something more subtle than that. It's more of a genuine reverence for G-d.

I feel welcome... and I feel a pull to learn more. To dig deeper. And I intend to keep doing that.

[brachot-and-boobies]

My childhood BFF and I have lived in different countries since I was in 5th grade and she was in 4th. We have seen each other twice since.  To day I found out that totally independently we have both started converting to Judaism.

HaShem works in mysterious ways

[lolita-s-blog1]

I'm going to buy myself a copy of the Torah today. My parents can't know - they think I'm converting Messianic (gross) and for the time being I'm content to let them think that (I was raised Southern Baptist and they think if I don't think Jesus is the Messiah then I'm going to bad places.) I want to convert so badly - I nearly happy cried earlier because I'm so thankful for G-d calling me to it, it feels so right to me. That being said, I haven't even spoken to a rabbi yet, I'm not Jewish, and I don't want to appropriate. If anyone has any advice, it'd be welcomed with open arms. ❤️

[sir-olibear]

@ Jumblr converts

What did the timeline look like for you between your initial thoughts about converting and actually starting the process? Did you do a lot of studying, incorporating practices into your life, and getting involved in the community before starting the process, or not until you’d officially begun? What made you realize A. that you really wanted to convert and B. that the time was right for you to begin conversion?

I know these journeys are super personal and individual to each person, but I’m interested in hearing your stories!

[devorah-batruth]

'The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel' Gets Jewish Converts Totally Wrong

Since it came into our lives last year, I’ve had mixed feelings about The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. The jokes on the show sometimes feel like t

I'm really glad to see that this article exists, honestly. My fiancée and I binged all of Mrs Maisel over the last few weeks, and I really loved it! But the way they treated Astrid, the only (I think) convert character on the show, really bothered me. It felt really uncomfortable that she was the butt of all the jokes, treated as weird for her observance, and written as such a pathetic try-hard. Her character just made me so sad!

I haven't even formally started the conversion process yet, and it still made me feel squirmy and almost... embarrassed? It felt really mean-spirited in an otherwise feel-good show.