Conversion to Judaism


Book Description

Conversion to Judaism provides information, advice, and support for individuals contemplating conversion to Judaism, as well as those who have converted and the families affected by this decision. With sensitivity and compassion, Lawrence J. Epstein offers an informative volume that warmly welcomes the newcomer to Judaism.




Becoming Jewish


Book Description

Becoming Jewish is an engaging, accessible, all-inclusive step-by-step guide to converting to Judaism that introduces readers to finding life's meaning through the evolving religious civilization that is Judaism. Written with humor and heart, readers learn the ins and outs of becoming Jewish and discover the wonder that is the language, literature, history, rituals, food, music, and culture of contemporary Jewish life.




The Gerus Guide - The Step By Step Guide to Conversion to Orthodox Judaism


Book Description

The Gerus Guide is the only book on the market that provides a step-by-step guide to Orthodox Jewish conversion. Drawing from over 25 years of experience counseling hundreds of candidates through the process, Rabbi Aryeh Moshen lays out a roadmap that's been proven successful time and again. Here, you'll find a comprehensive guide to keeping Kosher and observing the Sabbath, finding your community, Jewish prayer, and everything you need to live as an Orthodox Jew on a daily basis.




Converting to Judaism


Book Description

Over the years, Rabbi Bernice Kimel Weiss has shepherded hundreds of non-Jewish students into the family of the Jewish people. For most, the interest in Judaism is sparked by a decision to marry a Jewish man or woman. But that is only the beginning. In the gentle hands of a teacher who has witnessed and understands their turmoil, their conflicts, their tears, they bare their personal struggles. What emerge are amazing, powerful, soul-stirring stories of re-creation - the extraordinary adventure of becoming a Jew at the turn of the 21st century. An Asian-American whose father owns a Japanese restaurant marries a secular Jew but leads him to Orthodox Judaism; a Belgian raised by nuns meets a Jew and finds her faith in Israel; a former Sunday school teacher from a small farm town falls in love with a Jewish girl and with her faith as well; an African-American woman lawyer, a Harvard graduate, discovers Judaism and keeps kosher in a small southern town: their varied stories and eight more are revealed in these pages. The twists and turns and the direction their lives ultimately take are a source of inspiration to those contemplating Judaism, and to all in search of faith. They are a gift to the Jewish people.




The Oxford Handbook of Religious Conversion


Book Description

The Oxford Handbook of Religious Conversion offers a comprehensive exploration of the dynamics of religious conversion, which for centuries has profoundly shaped societies, cultures, and individuals throughout the world. Scholars from a wide array of religions and disciplines interpret both the varieties of conversion experiences and the processes that inform this personal and communal phenomenon. This volume examines the experiences of individuals and communities who change religions, those who experience an intensification of their religion of origin, and those who encounter new religions through colonial intrusion, missionary work, and charismatic and revitalization movements. The thirty-two innovative essays provide overviews of the history of particular religions, including Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism, Taoism, Sikhism, Islam, Christianity, Judaism, indigenous religions, and new religious movements. The essays also offer a wide range of disciplinary perspectives-psychological, sociological, anthropological, legal, political, feminist, and geographical-on methods and theories deployed in understanding conversion, and insight into various forms of deconversion.




Choosing Judaism


Book Description

In print for over 20 years, Choosing Judaism has become a classic guide for individuals considering conversion. By sharing her own story, Lydia Kukoff creates a remarkable work about what it means to make this significant choice. Years after her own conversion she continues to question, grow, and learn, and encourages others to do the same.




The Rabbinic Conversion of Judaism


Book Description

In this volume, Moshe Lavee offers an account of crucial internal developments in the rabbinic corpus, and shows how the Babylonian Talmud dramatically challenged and extended the rabbinic model of conversion to Judaism. The history of conversion to Judaism has long fascinated Jews along a broad ideological continuum. This book demonstrates the rabbis in Babylonia further reworked former traditions about conversion in ever more stringent direction, shifting the focus of identity demarcation towards genealogy and bodily perspectives. By applying a reading-strategy that emphasizes late Babylonian literary developments, Lavee sheds critical light on a broader discourse regarding the nature and boundaries of Jewish identity.




The Plum Thicket


Book Description

Katie's glorious summer at her grandparents' rambling home ends in tragedy when violence wrecks the three-day family reunion.




Coming Home


Book Description

A beautifully personal and engaging story of the wonders and struggles of life as a "newly" Jewish wife and mother




Between Christian and Jew


Book Description

In 1341 in Aragon, a Jewish convert to Christianity was sentenced to death, only to be pulled from the burning stake and into a formal religious interrogation. His confession was as astonishing to his inquisitors as his brush with mortality is to us: the condemned man described a Jewish conspiracy to persuade recent converts to denounce their newfound Christian faith. His claims were corroborated by witnesses and became the catalyst for a series of trials that unfolded over the course of the next twenty months. Between Christian and Jew closely analyzes these events, which Paola Tartakoff considers paradigmatic of inquisitorial proceedings against Jews in the period. The trials also serve as the backbone of her nuanced consideration of Jewish conversion to Christianity—and the unwelcoming Christian response to Jewish conversions—during a period that is usually celebrated as a time of relative interfaith harmony. The book lays bare the intensity of the mutual hostility between Christians and Jews in medieval Spain. Tartakoff's research reveals that the majority of Jewish converts of the period turned to baptism in order to escape personal difficulties, such as poverty, conflict with other Jews, or unhappy marriages. They often met with a chilly reception from their new Christian brethren, making it difficult to integrate into Christian society. Tartakoff explores Jewish antagonism toward Christians and Christianity by examining the aims and techniques of Jews who sought to re-Judaize apostates as well as the Jewish responses to inquisitorial prosecution during an actual investigation. Prosecutions such as the 1341 trial were understood by papal inquisitors to be in defense of Christianity against perceived Jewish attacks, although Tartakoff shows that Christian fears about Jewish hostility were often exaggerated. Drawing together the accounts of Jews, Jewish converts, and inquisitors, this cultural history offers a broad study of interfaith relations in medieval Iberia.