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My local chat list here in Israel had the following message yesterday:
“A special Yasher Koach [Well done!] to all the women who participated in baking challah for Nitzana Chaya bas Devora and David ben Freida.  They have b”H been blessed with a baby girl just 9½ months after the Shabbos that challah was baked for [...]

Last week, an article appeared in the Jerusalem Post (by Matthew Wagner) announcing that “the Chief Rabbinate has agreed to recognize conversions performed by the Rabbinic Council of America.”  This sounds like a momentous occasion, trumpeting greater recognition by the Israeli rabbinical establishment of Diaspora rabbis and conversions.  However, the reality is not quite as [...]

I began to study intensely.  While in Israel, I began learning with the granddaughter of Eliezer Berkovits z”l, and afterward in the Boston area with several remarkable teachers.  I moved to the community of Newton, Massachusetts, and began studying with a rabbi there who also became my sponsor for conversion with the Boston Beit Din.  [...]

In 1994, I backpacked through Europe for 10 weeks.  While there, I met a Swedish Jew who wasn’t religious, but was very Jewishly knowledgeable.  His Jewish youth activities had taken him all over Jewish Europe and Israel, and he encouraged me to explore my Jewish roots.  While I didn’t care much for him as a [...]

Greetings from Israel! When Avi and the other contributors invited me to join the blog as a contributor, I was thrilled. At the same time I realize that JBC.org is primarily by and for liberally-minded JBCs. I fall a bit outside of this, being an Orthodox convert, but perhaps my story will [...]