Author: Anita Diamant
In Choosing A Jewish Life, Anita Diamant (also the author of the bestselling The
Red Tent) outlines the process, both spiritual and practical, that a person
undergoes in converting from a non-Jew to a Jew.

She covers many topics
including a brief introduction to Judaism, dealing with family members who may
or may not support one’s conversion, choosing a sponsoring Rabbi, selecting a
Hebrew name and living a Jewish life. The book includes her own personal
conversion story and contains many accounts of the process of conversion by
Jews-by-choice, or ger.

The book is practical in many ways, but it also it deeply moving. One of my
favorite sections of Diamant’s work is the chapter on choosing a Hebrew name.
She discusses the power of a name and how that power is intensified when one
chooses the name as an adult in the process of becoming a Jew. The author
writes, “Choosing a Hebrew name is a way of creating and naming your new Jewish
self. It is a way to give voice to who you really are and who you hope to
become.” This passage speaks to me particularly around my having endured many
life experiences that I did not choose and would not wish upon anyone. The idea
of choosing a new name, that represents who I feel I truly am, gives me great
joy and I believe is so important for anyone reinventing herself, whether to a
new religion or to any life phase.

Choosing a Jewish Life is also full of the rudimentaries of many Jewish rituals.
From circumcision to the bet din (essentially a religious court who assesses
one’s readiness to become a Jew) to the mikvah (a ritual, cleansing bath
converts to Judaism immerse themselves into), Diamant leads us through the
ancient and meaningful rituals converts to Judaism undergo. The chapter
discussing the mikvah seems to centralize all the other rituals a convert
participates in on her/his journey to becoming a Jew. Diamant quotes from
Yevamot 47B, “As soon as the convert immerses and emerges, he is a Jew in every
respect.” What joy in this miraculous ritual! The author speaks of the healing
and cleansing power of water, which, according to the Talmud, sources back to
the river that emerged from Eden. While most of the rest of the preparations for
becoming a Jew are intellectual pursuits, the mikvah is a wholly physical act.
Even still, most Jews-by-choice report that this act of being submersed in water
has a powerful and lasting impact on their identities as Jews. Diamant comments,
“Floating in the mikvah—every limb, every pore, every strand of hair covered by
waters as warm as those of your mother’s womb—you are held in a primal embrace
and emerge, in a way, reborn.”

The book also includes sections on converting children to Judaism, Jewish
marriage rituals, making the Torah your own and what one can expect in her first
year as a Jew. It truly is a remarkable commentary by a brilliant writer on both
the path to becoming a Jew and the life one can expect to live after she/he is
converted to the family of Judaism. Deeply spiritual, mystical and enthralling,
Choosing a Jewish Life invites the reader to re-consider the history of the
Jewish people, to look at herself in profound ways and to contemplate the
possibilities and unspeakable meanings living a life with g-d as center can
have. From a prayer by Edmund Flegg, “Why I Am a Jew”, that Diamant includes in
her book, I leave you with the following inspiring thought: “I am a Jew because
at every time despair cries out, the Jew hopes.” Shalom.