Category archive for ‘Conversion’ 
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Free to Be Jew and Me
You–yes, you, and no one else–are in charge of your Judaism. Every Jewish choice you will ever be faced with is yours to decide, not your movement’s to decide for you. For prospective converts, that includes deciding on the type of Jew you want to be.
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God Was on the Brown Line and I, I Did Not Know
One year ago today, I got on the Chicago ‘L’ feeling spiritually homeless and got off knowing I would spend the rest of my life living Jewishly. God’s whisper comes in many forms. For me, it came on the Brown Line.
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Life, the Universe, and Everything Jewish: Six Years of Chicago Carless
Three months after officially joining the Jewish people, things make sense in a way I never expected. Some say Jewish converts are born with a Jewish spark waiting to be realized. Now I realize how the past six years of my blog–and the past 41 years of my life–have led me to my Jewish self.
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“Do you feel any different?”: My Mikveh Day Report
My mikveh day was amazing and surprising in ways I’ll never forget. It changed me forever–but it took me all day to figure out just how. Here is my epic look at the day I officially joined the Jewish people.
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Splashdown
When I woke up this morning, Michael Doyle wasn’t a Jewish name. It is now. Today, I officially joined the Jewish people.
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Unwritten
There are very few times one is able to say that an event is a once-in-a-lifetime thing and not be exaggerating. Tomorrow morning will be the most important morning of my life. What are you supposed to feel the evening before you become a Jew?
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Perfect
Could my biggest problem be thinking that there’s something wrong with everything not being perfect? Nine months of my Jewish conversion journey didn’t get me any closer to things being perfect–but got me a lot closer to things being right.
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Become a Jew in 28 Easy Books: My Conversion Reading List
Study is a central part of every decision to join the Jewish people. How central? How about 7,000 pages? Here is a list of the 28 books I read during the nine months of my conversion journey to become a Reform Jew.
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Secular vs.
Shifting from a secular life to a religiously observant one can definitely teach you who your friends are–and aren’t. My social circle looks very different at the end of my Jewish conversion journey than it did at the beginning of it. That’s OK.
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Passoverwrought
Plan all the phoney matzah meals you want, or avoid it completely and subsist on permitted meats and quinoa. No amount of advance planning will take all the sting out of observing Passover. Nor should it.
