Omer 2024 Day 39

Day 38 | Day 40

Day 39: Netzach in Yesod, Endurance in Foundation

When I sat before my beit din 13 years ago prepared to complete my conversion to Judaism, we discussed many things. We discussed the beauty and meaning of the Jewish holidays, the rhythm of the Jewish year, the comfort of Jewish rituals and songs. After I explained the feeling of awe (and hunger) I had felt on the previous Yom Kippur, but before I explained why I chose my Hebrew name, the members of my beit din paused and said, "We want to make sure you understand antisemitism and the risks you're taking to join the Jewish people." I said, "Yes, I do," and went on to talk about my lifelong love of history and about how, just four months earlier, I spent the hours before my engagement at the US Holocaust Museum (in fairness to me, I didn't know I was going to get engaged that night, but still). In seventh grade, I read The Diary of Anne Frank during study hall* without any context for what it was or how it would end, and when I finished it in class, I was glad to be sitting in the back where nobody would see me crying. In college as a history major, I took classes focused on WWII and one half-credit class with a visiting Israeli professor on the history of antisemitism. In short, by the time I had reached my beit din, I had spent years seeking to better understand this particular brand of hatred and oppression. Still, it was important for my beit din to confirm that I was starting out in Judaism with my eyes open. The foundation of a Jewish life has to take the good with the bad, with no exceptions. Becoming Jewish is all-encompassing.

Interested in reading further about converts' relationships to antisemitism? A Google search for "Jewish conversion" will bring up a lot of recent articles about interest in conversion following October 7:

Tablet Magazine, "Converting to Judaism Post 10-7"

Forward, "Why would anyone convert to Judaism after Oct. 7?"

The Times of Israel, "A convert in times of crisis"

*The Diary of Anne Frank was not part of a class curriculum; my study hall teacher just wanted us to sit quietly and read whatever we chose, and I had grabbed Anne Frank's book off the display rack by the desk in the school library. As far as I could tell, my middle school didn't have any comprehensive Holocaust education. I think some teachers taught Number the Stars in 8th grade, but mine didn't (though I did read Red Scarf Girl twice in middle school, so I'm well aware of the harms of Communist China).