Keren-Aliza

At Shabbat services on Friday, our rabbi introduced to the congregation a new convert. A middle-aged mother of three, she was raised as a Protestant and was a member of an old-line Protestant congregation nearby, but she had long felt hungry for a spiritual home more satisfying to her. After much thought and study on her own, she e-mailed our rabbi, who, after many conversations with her, agreed to accept her for the process of conversion. This she recently completed. The name she was given at birth is Karen. On Shabbat, our rabbi announced her Hebrew name, Keren-Aliza, loosely translated as cornucopia of happiness, appropriate for this smiling woman who had always seemed to me to be so joyful at our Friday evening services.

Judaism is not a proselytizing religion, yet over the years thousands of non-Jews have become Jews, taking upon themselves the yoke of the religion’s obligations and constraints. My family for example, must have had ancestors who originated outside Palestine, as can be seen in childhood pictures of my tow-headed mother and her twin, and in the red hair of my cousin and sister before their heads became gray. Several members of our congregation are converts, which I would not have known had they not told me. Some of these conversions were motivated by marriage to a Jewish spouse, but others, like Keren-Aliza’s, were made independently. Her husband and children, though supporting her conversion, remain Gentiles.

Conversion to Judaism is a radical step. Keren-Aliza not only accepted the ritual requirements of our religion, but she also joined herself to our people. She is now as fully Jewish as anyone born a Jew, equally present metaphorically at Mount Sinai when Moses came down from the mountain.

I asked Keren-Aliza’s 85-year-old father, who attended the last Friday’s services, how he felt about his daughter’s conversion. Raised as a Unitarian and continuing to attend a Unitarian congregation, he told me that everyone must find his or her own way in such matters. He seemed pleased that his daughter had found her way even if it was not his way. Good for him and good for her.