Choosing a Jewish Life, Revised and Updated: A Handbook for People Converting to Judaism and for Their Family and Friends

when all Jews have access to the entire marketplace of ideas and beliefs, an authentic sense of being Jewish—of Jewishness—requires living as a Jew, doing Jewish in some way.

it’s important to remember that you choose a Judaism when you choose to become a Jew.

As a Jew-by-choice, you inherit four thousand years of Jewish history, which is not just an academic or esoteric pursuit but a living presence.

When my wife and I decided to marry, I thought that we’d just join a Unitarian church, where we could celebrate all kinds of holidays. But the rituals and rest and beauty of Shabbat—the wisdom of Shabbat—made me want to be a Jew.

On the occasion of her conversion, Mary Russell wrote, “Judaism has allowed me to lay down my intellectual defenses and to stand, unprotected by cynicism, before the idea of a God who cares passionately about the human moral drama and gives it meaning by remembering our actions and our choices.”

“God asks for the heart, and we must spell out our answer in terms of deeds.”

Jews-by-choice also bring with them a unique passion for Judaism. Many speak of “falling in love” with Judaism for a variety of reasons: because it invites them to wrestle with God, because it identifies the home as a sanctuary, because Judaism is inseparable from a call to social justice. For born-Jews whose Jewish education and connection stopped

The contemporary welcome for converts represents both a new chapter in Jewish history and a return to the very beginning of Jewishness, to Abraham and Sarah and the souls who accompanied them, leaving the world of their parents to begin a new chapter in world history.

People become Jewish because they love the heat and light of text study, because they want to be part of a people and history that loves justice, because they love the idea of belonging to a worldwide family, because they love Torah.