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How to Celebrate Your Conversion

Mazel tov! You must be getting close to your conversion if you’re thinking about how to celebrate it! My experience so far is that orthodox converts don’t celebrate nearly as much as liberal converts. Make your interpretations as you will. Nearly everyone has (or tries to have) a special meal with some friends and family. […]

When You NEED to Reveal Your Conversion Candidate Status

You may have previously read When Is It OK to Say “I’m Jewish,” Even If You Really Aren’t. But what about the other side? When MUST you disclose your in-flux status, even if you really don’t want to? I make no promises that this list is exhaustive, but I will update it if other important […]

UPDATED: Why You Shouldn’t Date During Conversion

NOTE: The Kvetching Editor wrote a response to this post here. I just want to point out that her situation is not what I’m describing. I’m talking about a single who enters the orthodox conversion process and then begins dating people who are already orthodox. However, for the record, I think dating is probably a bad idea […]

My First Shabbat Kallah

What’s a Shabbat Kallah? It’s a celebration for the bride on the Shabbos afternoon before her wedding day. In some ways, it’s like a frum bachelorette party. (Note that there may also be a “normal” bachelorette party with the bride and her girlfriends!) I went to my first Shabbat Kallah last month, and it was a very […]

Convert Questions: What Does Hatafat Dam Brit Feel Like?

(Hatafat dam brit is the “drop of blood” drawn from an already-circumcised male as part of his conversion. It is the “completion” of brit milah, if you look at it as completing the original circumcision.) This is a question that gets bantered around a lot, but no one gives an answer. I asked around and […]

Jewish Traditions in a Nutshell: The Ketubah and the Get

The New York Times had an article last Friday about non-Jews using ketubot (also Englishized by us English speakers as ketubahs) as part of their wedding ceremony: Christians Embrace a Jewish Wedding Tradition. (You may have to create a NYT account to view older stories.) This definitely goes in my “least expected national news stories […]

UPDATED: How to Interview a New Jewish Community

Happy Half-Priced Candy Day! Now on to business… During conversion, you feel like you’re the one always being interviewed. And you are. But at some point, maybe even during your conversion, you’ll also get to interview someone: the rabbis and congregants of a new community. Hopefully you have a selection of communities! Even if not, […]

UPDATED: When Can a Conversion Candidate Begin Wearing Jewish “Things”?

Of course, the cop-out, generic answer is always, “It depends on the person.” It also depends on the “thing.” Let’s start by talking about a couple of things, and then we can continue the discussion in the comments if you want to talk about other Jewish items! Jewelry: Personally, I think anyone can wear Jewish […]

How Do Converts Choose a Minhag?

What is a minhag? “Custom.” Plural: minhagim. However, some minhagim have been practiced so widely and for so long that rabbis have declared them to be mandatory halacha. More generally, each large group of Judaism are considered to have a “minhag,” including Ashkenazi, Sephardi, Mizrahi, Yemenite, Indian (from India), etc. Further, some minhagim are how […]