Jewish Conversion - Tumblr Posts
about a year after i decided to convert to judaism, i found out my moms dads family was jewish.
my first reaction was irritation. it was mostly a mock anger; i joked that if great-grandma rose hadn’t converted to christianity i wouldn’t have had to go the long way back to judaism. but some of that irritation was real. ever since i started my conversion i’ve felt like i’ve come home. i can’t imagine my life without it at this point. how could she have ever left?
i wondered if her mom- esther, a ukrainian jew who fled to the united states in the 1910’s- was disappointed she’d converted.
all i know about my great grandmas rose and esther are from census records and bits and pieces my mom remembers from her childhood. i know they both spoke ukrainian- esther never learned how to speak english, and rose never taught her son david how to speak ukrainian. i know esther’s name was changed to “stella” at some point in the 1940s. rose made hamantaschen during christmas, and taught my mom how to make pierogi. i don’t know why esther left ukraine but i’ve got a pretty good guess.
i don’t know why grandma rose converted. maybe she really did believe jesus was the messiah. maybe orthodox christianity was, for her, a way to escape antisemitism while being as close as she could to judaism. i don’t know. but i definitely don’t blame her like i used to. i’m coming home, and i hope she would be proud of me.
hebrew national kosher pigs in a blanket should not be $20, that’s just messed up
10pm sundown is a BLESSING. accidentally took a 5 hour nap this afternoon, woke up at 6pm with none of my pre-shabbos chores done, still have three hours to finish them. in the winter i will suffer but in the summer i am thriving
AMAB converts, y’all are so brave. the idea of undergoing circumcision as an adult is so scary. one of my profs was talking about circumcision and he said, and i quote, “it’s a threat. misbehave and i’ll come back for the rest.”
panera bread count your mfing days
(chicken stock in the broccoli cheddar soup)
learning about artificial/ornamental ashkenazi surnames is so wild cause like??? what do you mean the austrian emperor just made that shit up
so excited to move to a place with a bigger kitchen cause y’all i’m getting
🔥🗣️🔊‼️‼️stainless steel pots‼️🔥🫡💯🔥🔥
if someone has distant ashkenazi ancestry on their maternal side, in terms of being halachically jewish, do the maternal ancestors need to be provably, religiously jewish or does it suffice that they were of ashkenazi descent?
there are two ways you can be halachically jewish, either your mother is jewish or you converted (halachically, of course)
so if your great grandma were jewish, and she had a daughter who had a daughter who had you, you would all be jewish. if you can miraculously trace a solely maternal jewish line, then you are halachically jewish. (source: https://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/3408865/jewish/How-Do-I-Know-If-I-Am-a-Jew.htm)
i am a conversion student even though i have jewish heritage because my mom is paternally jewish and was raised christian, so i am not halachically jewish. converting is also just helpful for deepening your knowledge and understanding of jewish culture !
i think my favorite part of making shabbos with my friends is when we pull up sefaria on the tv to answer our questions about the torah portion.
this week it was “why couldn’t we have garlic flavored manna that’s so lame”
anyways shavua tov!
thinking about the times in middle school i got teased/bullied for being gay/jewish…
how did they know
my supervisor hearing i can’t work friday evening/saturdays bcus of shabbos and then immediately scheduling me two jew-ish clients is so slay
woke up this morning to the horrific realization that i have a meeting with my rabbi today. on tisha b’av. i chose the first open slot on her calendar without even looking at the date and now have to “greet” her with an apology
jewish ancestry too distant to not require conversion, but close enough that i got all the GI problems
gotta say i am soooooo glad the people in my immediate circle are all normal about jews. i can come home and talk to my roommates about trying bamba for the first time and none of them flinch when i say it’s an israeli snack. my partner has hours-long drunk conversations with my friends about halacha. my partners mom made sure there were kosher options for me when i visited. i guess it’s just a comfort, knowing that the people with lives, who regularly go outside and touch grass, outnumber the antisemites (at least in my city)
my uni is offering a class called “torah in ancient israel” in the fall and i’m taking it because
1. my university NEVER offers classes like this so i gotta take it to show admin that yes, students are interested in this subject and
2. taking it is part of my grand scheme to get into the talmud class in the spring. it’s taught by the same professor BUT i don’t have the pre reqs for it. so my plan is to become bestest friends with my professor and beg him to let me take talmud please please please
love rabbis cause sometimes they’ll respond to your emails at midnight like girl!!! get some sleep!!!
autumn means knitting sweaters and knitting means excess yarn and excess yarn means MATCHING YARMULKES
people who describe converts as "Jews by choice" are so funny to me. There was no choice. You didn't choose this. Ever since your soul was on mount sinai, you were as forced into this as any of us. The only difference between my Judaism and yours is that you had a period of non Judaism, Jelly btw, did you ever get to eat lobster? what was that like?
How I thought conversion would work:
Seek Out Rabbi > Take Judaism class > Get approval from Rabbi/beit din > splashy splashy > solemnly put on a magen David necklace > go forth and do Jewish stuff for the very first time now that you have Permission
How it's going:
Seek out Rabbi > immediately start doing Jewish stuff badly > sign up for class that doesn’t start for 6 months > panic attack in shul parking lot > be cool be cool no one knows> THEY KNOW > attempt shema > is this appropriation? Because it feels like appropriation. > covet mezuzahs > watch live streamed Shabbat services to make sure nothing unexpected happens in person > something unexpected happens in person > take selfies in the shul bathroom > read 300 books > become a babka enjoyer > ???