STACEY SULTAN
Bulletin Intern
She was born in Berlin during the Holocaust to a Protestant mother and a Jewish father. Decades later, struggling to find her identity, she chooses Judaism.
"If one German becomes Jewish," Miriam Leiseroff, a South Bay resident, reflects now, "maybe one of the 6 million Jews can be brought back to life."
The story of this woman's conversion, along with those of many other is documented in "Embracing the Covenant," coauthored by Rabbi Allan Berkowitz of San Jose's Congregation Sinai and Patty Moskovitz, a Bay Area Jewish educator who specializes in Jews-by-choice issues.
The authors believe that Jewish readers have much to learn from converts' personal histories. The book, says Berkowitz in an interview, shows "the spiritual richness that converts bring to the kiddush table."
By choosing to embrace the Jewish faith and culture, the authors observe, converts are affirming the strength of their convictions with their very lives. The authors quote Rav, who founded the Academy at Sura in the third century C.E.: "Whoever seeks to be converted should be accepted. Do not impugn the motives of gerim [converts]. Perhaps they came for the sake of heaven."
Yet in Israel, Orthodox regulations must be met before a conversion can be considered legitimate. Among other requirements, the would-be convert must meet with a bet din, or rabbinical court, and enter the mikveh, or ritual bath.
Berkowitz says the book is not directed toward readers of any specific denomination, but instead presents a wide range of options for would-be converts.
The 19 personal accounts presented in "Embracing the Covenant" should intrigue readers at every stage of the conversion process, not to mention longtime converts and those close to them. The authors intersperse personal anecdotes with powerful quotes from converts.
Converts are serious Jews, the authors tell us, emphasizing the great devotion and strength a convert needs in order to step off the religious path on which he or she was raised. This strength, Moskovitz says, enriches Judaism, and "can be a force for tikkun olam [repairing the world]."
Converts, she says, affirm "how beautiful Judaism is."
"Embracing the Covenant," by Rabbi Allan L. Berkowitz and Patti Moskovitz (148 pages, Jewish Lights, $15.95).