 My journey begins many years ago. As far back as I could remember I was quite a spiritual person. I wasn't raised in any religion until I was about 12, that's when my mom became a devout Christian and being a child I followed in her footsteps. While serving in the U.S. Navy and I went on a trip for my 21st birthday through Italy. During my stay in Rome, I met a Jewish family from Los Angeles with whom I ended up touring the city. The father [of the family] and I got on the topic of my spiritual journey, wherein he posed this question to me, "Why don't you become a Jew?" This question resonated within but being a woman of color, I did not think this was possible, so I said "No." After I returned to my post in Sicily, I became obsessed with everything Jewish. I read every headline I could about Jews, Israel and the conflicts that they were facing. I studied the history of the Jewish Holy days until I knew them all by heart. Because of this thirst for knowledge about Jews, after serving three years in the military, I decided to go to seminary school-- which is the Christian equivalent to Yeshiva-- to learn more about Christianity and the bible.
I always had doubts and questions about the Christian faith and the response was always, don't ask my own questions just accept everything on blind faith.  I always had doubts and questions about the Christian faith and the response was always, don't ask my own questions just accept everything on blind faith.
Fortunately for me, I was always the inquisitive type, I never let sleeping dogs lie. After studying in seminary for two years, I went to China to teach. While there, I found that I had even more questions about the origins of Christianity but none could be answered. For three years after that, I didn't study at all because I was discouraged. But I could not stay away from HaShem much longer, and after three years of silence, I decided to resume study again.That is when I stumbled upon two sites, JewFaq.org and Jews For Judaism. Upon reading about Judaism and what it meant to be a Jew, my questions were answered and I decided I needed to attend a service. This was during the High Holy days of 2003 and I received a phone call from my voice trainer from New York City who told me that he would be the cantor at a synagogue near my home and invited me to attend services.
That week was a pivotal point in my life. I knew then, that I could be like Ruth who was willing to return with her mother-in-law back to her people and make them her own as well as make their G-d her G-d. I knew that I was destined to be a Jew. I knew that I was destined to be a Jew. I gathered all of the information that I had been studying and took it to my family. At a family gathering, I told my mother, aunt, uncle and cousins that I planned to become a Jew. That it was not a spur of the moment decision but that I had been studying for quite sometimes. I informed them that even though their blessing meant a lot to me, the lack of one would not detour me from my journey. Although, my family does not understand why I have chosen this life, they have been accepting and supportive. My mom attends various religious ceremonies and celebrates some of the holidays with me. After I told my famliy my intentions, I found a synagagoue and started the conversion process and continued to do research on all aspects of Judaism. At that time, I was in the midst of a reform conversion and decided that Orthodox Judaism was more for me. By which time I contacted an Orthodox Rabbi in Houston who, after many attempts to get me to become a Noachide, he decided to place me with a family after realizing that I would not be deterred. The father and mother--of this family--have been my mentors every since and have made me a member of their family. In fact, they plan to
give me part of my Hebrew name once my conversion is complete.
In the midst of all of this, I decided to go to Israel, where I was exposed to all ethnic groups of Jews. This was fascinating for me because I have only been exposed to Eastern European Jews. After spending time with many of the Persian and Sephardi Jews, I felt that I had more in common with them as a woman of color because the Sephardi movement had Jews from all ethnic groups. After spending time with many of the Persian and Sephardi Jews, I felt that I had more in common with them as a woman of color because the Sephardi movement had Jews from all ethnic groups. Not to mention I love their culture and traditions, and being that I am very attached to Middle Eastern and African cultures they [Sephardi] appealed to me even more so.
Leave it to say, that when I returned from Israel, I wanted to pursue a Sephardi conversion but was told that Sephardim did not participate in conversions. I was disheartened but continue to pursue it. Surely, someone out there would see my sincerity and help me towards my goal. My orthodox mentors are very supportive of my need to be apart of the Sephardi community and have been trying to help me procure a Rabbi. In my good fortune of being on my journey, I stumbled upon PersianRabbi.com and posed a question to the rabbi and the rest is history.Tova is chronicling her journey on a blog titled Journey Of A Gera |
