The Conversion Episode: Ep 136

Tablet Studios

Tablet Magazine

Judaism, Society & Culture, Religion & Spirituality

4.6 • 1.5K Ratings

🗓️ 17 May 2018

⏱️ 87 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

On Shavuot we read the Book of Ruth, which tells the story of Ruth, the first convert to Judaism, who ultimately becomes the great-grandmother of King David. In Ruth's honor, this week we're talking about conversion to Judaism, and hearing stories from people around the globe who have chosen to become Jewish—starting with our listeners. Reporter Abby Holtzman travels to Savannah, Georgia, to bring us the story of a 13-year-old girl who has taken the plunge, literally, to convert to Judaism. Rabbi Seth Farber, the director of ITIM, an advocacy organization that helps people convert to Judaism outside the Orthodox Rabbinate, explains the complexities of conversion in Israel, and how he's trying to change that. Nathan Steiger shares his story of losing his Mormon faith and, together with his wife and daughters, embracing Orthodox Judaism and converting as a family. Naomi Telushkin (sister of our producer Shira Telushkin) and her fiancee, Ben Pigett, an Australian submariner converting to Judaism, discuss what Judaism—and Ben's conversion—means to both of them. Listener Yolanda Wu tells us about her decision to finish her conversion 20 years after she started it — and the very jewish life she and her family lived in that time. We love hearing from our listeners! Email us at Unorthodox@tabletmag.com or leave a message at our listener line: 914-570-4869. We may share your note on the air. If you like us, please consider leaving a review in iTunes. Follow us on Twitter and Instagram, and join our Facebook group to chat with the hosts and see what happens behind-the-scenes! Sign up for our weekly newsletter to get new episodes, photos, and more. Show your love for Unorthodox with our new T-shirts, sweatshirts, and baby onesies. Get yours at bit.ly/unorthoshirt. This episode is sponsored by One Day University, which brings together the greatest professors from the world's top schools to present special versions of their best lectures live. Register for upcoming events at www.onedayu.com using the code JEWISH for 30 percent off.

Transcript

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0:00.0	What better way to be proudly Jewish right now than with our book, the Newish Jewish Encyclopedia?
0:07.0	It's the perfect coffee table book for your proud Jewish home,
0:10.0	and it covers everything from Jewish history pop culture holidays and of course food
0:14.2	all with our trademark irreverence and love our publisher is offering a special
0:18.8	20% discount on newest Jewish and their entire Hanukah shop. So head to artisan books
0:23.3	and use the code unorthodox at check out. That's artisan books.com discount code
0:28.6	unorthodox all caps. Hi unorthodox I'm Orthodox. This is Sarah Link Ferguson and I wanted to share my conversion story and I'm going to try to keep it as brief as possible.
0:42.0	But basically it all started with my mom who got interested in Judaism sometime
0:47.5	in the 90s and she studied it and started trying out different synagogues and made Jewish friends and eventually converted in 2005 when I was about 16.
1:01.0	And at the time I had no real interest in Judaism although I really liked the
1:05.7	ritual and going to staters and you know all of the cultural stuff around it.
1:11.5	So I actually started getting really interested in Judaism in college. I was taking a lot of human rights classes and reading a lot of human rights literature by Prima Levy and Ali Wiesel and it just piques my interest.
1:27.2	That was like 2010.
1:29.7	I didn't actually start the conversion process until 2015 so I really thought about it
1:37.1	and researched it hard for like five years and found like the perfect
1:42.2	congregation for me and reached out the rabbi,
1:45.0	I learned about the conversion class, and that is when I found unorthodox
1:50.0	suddenly enough.
1:52.0	So I listened to a North Carolina throughout my conversion process and I was even
1:59.2	listening to an episode on the way to the mix to my date then.
2:03.0	And I have to say that I credit the Orthodox with helping my cultural Jewish knowledge so much.
2:11.0	There's so much that I wouldn't have known that just comes
	...

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