Conversion process

New year and new life…
I am officially in the process of a conversion.
After thinking too much where i can do it, i decided to do it in my country.

Le Marais, Paris, August 2015, ©emmarubinstein

First, i had to write a letter to the Consistory to explain why i want to get converted.
How to summarize my life in not too many pages.
Then, the best exercise is to handwrite it. You actually show your soul.

I write this blog since February 2013, but i travel in the Jewish world since my childhood, and in the Hasidic world since my first steps in Prague and Poland at the beginning of the 90s.

Living in Brooklyn was a revelation of a new path to take.

Before crossing the Mediterranean sea, i have things to deal with in Paris.
I will take the test to work with kids between the age of 3 and 5.
I am still working besides those things. And i stopped working on Fridays. Except that i started a creative workshop with children where i am assisting an artist. She has a Jewish name, born in Argentina, spending time there and in Italy and back since 3 years in France. She is in her 60s.
She looks like Jewish by her father's lineage. :-)
As she said: "I was good for camps".

I found a Jewish community. First time, i have been shy.

My shul, my community, Paris,
That homeless with his dog was not aware that he was sitting in front of a shul.
The Hasidim were scared of asking him for leaving. But soldiers were around.
2015, ©emmarubinstein

My first Friday was weird. I was the only woman.
I sent an email to the rabbi who told me to come to the shul.
I wanted to meet him "properly" before coming and because of the last dramatic events.
He was too busy to reply to me.
Finally, we had a phone conversation, and i liked him right away.

When we talked, i had already received the response of the Consistory which has accepted to open a file for my conversion.
Their letter was weird and My rabbi (yes, i am proud of having found a rabbi), explained me that they want the future converted to give up.
The process is on and i have to send some papers to start.

As you know, i am lost not to live surrounded by Hasidim all the time.
And not to be able to go to the 770 as i used to go at anytime.
I told to my rabbi my feelings.
I can go to all the services: Friday evening and Saturday morning.
The women come on Saturdays. And i can meet them in their section and at the kiddush in the basement.
Last week was my first kiddush with that community and the last Shabbos of the year 5775.
The rabbi told me that there is a young girl who is in the process of a conversion too.
I talked to her yesterday.
My rabbi thinks that it will be a good idea to exchange feelings.
Indeed! She is in her 20s, none of her parents is Jewish.
I think that she will be able to help me with the siddur.
Indeed again! She told me that the Consistory will give me a list of teachers who will teach me how to pray, etc…
The rabbi was not worried about my ability to find my tracks about the prayers.
Sometimes, i stop reading the siddur and i listen to the men. I also try to recognize Hebrew words.
I met the rabbi's wife who is a teacher for kids in a Yeshiva.
She was interested by the workshop i had with the children.

Bochurim from Crown Heights in rue des Rosiers, Paris, August 2015, ©emmarubinstein

rue des Rosiers, Paris, August 2015, ©emmarubinstein

During the kiddush, i talked with a few women. They asked me for looking for my roots from my mother lineage. The rabbi suggested me to do it.
My mother was blessed as a Catholic, thus i was born from a Catholic mother. There are too many things to learn and i am ready to go for that long process.

One of the women told me that she always asks her children to show her in the siddur. She is wearing a wig and she didn't have a Jewish education.
She was nice and, she dislikes deeply to judge a book by its cover.
She gave examples about women who look very tzniut, and their way of life is not.
I was smiling and thinking about all my Hasidic stories.

Yesterday before the Havdallah, i had a course about Kippur with my rabbi's wife. It was delightful for me.
I was happy to learn that i can do the kapparos with money instead of the poor chicken.

I will write later about Rosh Hashanah.

Shana Tova everyone!

Smiling face, rue des Rosiers, Paris, 2015, ©emmarubinstein