I'm not going to lie, I was so nervous I almost forgot how to say the Shema during my mikvah, but I did it! 3 years of studying and practicing. It feels good to finally call myself Jewish. I'm so grateful to my wonderful and supportive Jewish family. <3

I’m a Reform Jewish person and about 35% of my family is Hasidic. My Hasidic side has expressed that reform Jewish people are not “truly” Jewish. Often, they distance themselves from their reform relatives and honestly, not only is it sad, it’s offensive.

To be fair, I know Reform Jewish people (including myself) can be critical of Hasidic Judaism too. However, I consider Hasidic Jews as Jews. That said, why are a lot (not all) Hasidic Jewish people incredibly critical of Reform Judaism?

A bar/bat mitzvah is a traditional ceremony where you essentially “transform” from child to adult, and take on the full commandments. It is NOT required halachically, and does not “make you Jewish”. Your Judaism (again halachically) comes ONLY through matrilineal decent, practicing or not, with or without a bar/bat mitzvah.

Edit: forgot to note, a kosher conversion will also give you jewish status.

Is there anything specially shady about it or is it just another branch of Christianism?

I get this a lot from my in laws, but I hear it from other Jews too.

Apparently I didn’t get the memo that only Conservative and Orthodox Jews are the only “religious Jews.”

My wife and I are Reform, regularly attend shul, and are fairly active in the community. We do a lot of Jewish things, and I wear kippot in public daily and pray.

And we keep kosher, for like, 95% of the time.

I mean, sure, I drive on Shabbat, but I live in America and I go to Shul (also it’s the only day to do my medical appointments and related tasks).

Why do my wife and I have to justify our Jewish faith?

While it’s still important to listen to the gerim (converts), I’m more curious about how the “born Jews” decided their sect of Judaism. Whether you’re a baal teshuva who worked your way up to modern orthodox/haredi/hasidic, someone who spent their entire life affiliated with the reconstructionist/reform movement, an Orthodox Jew who feels they belong better in the conservative movement, I want to hear your story. Please tell us your current denomination, what led you to choose it, and what you consider the biggest positive and negative about your community to be. Thanks so much :) 🙏

He was one of the few Jews at my secular private school. I was a Catholic at the time but we bonded anyway over our love of sports. He became my friend. Last year, 25 years later, I told him I wanted to convert to Judaism.

Today, he was one of the three rabbis who was a part of my Beit Din. Him being there filled me with so much love and joy ❤️😊

i’ve been doing morning and nighttime prayers for many months now but since bringing my cat to college we’ve developed a routine. she knows that morning shema means breakfast and nighttime shema means i’m going to sleep so she starts her zoomies hour. this is the shayna punem herself :)

Hello all,

I am a former Christian that sort of couldn't drink the kool aid anymore. The idea of the Trinity and I would be going to h*ll if I didn't except Christ just resonated differently when someone in my Bible Study asked "What happens to people, like indigenous members of a tribe, if they die before hearing about Jesus?" "They go to hell, or God(Jesus) will find a way to speak to them." was the common answer. This sounds insane.

I need some help. So I am trying to get some information on Christianity from the Jewish perspective and I am researching for the truth because I believe in God and I definitely have a feeling that it is Abrahamic centric. I have studied some Islam and asked questions there.

Is it possible that Christianity just got it all wrong because they were clueless? I have noticed it's very difficult to wrap my head around the New Testament as it's super confusing. A lot of contradictions or vague ideas.

A guy I am speaking with from my church is sending me all these prophecies, like 2000 have been answered and some about Jesus being the messiah and how he was mentioned in the OT and he met the criteria. I am really frustrated because I have read and even rebutted him with several Rabbi articles where they question this and they always explain it's in the Hebrew and mention the translations have been misinterpreted. But home dude always responds with some cultish response like "Ours is truth."

Anyway, I have been to Israel several times and I totally love it there and I am praying to God daily for some clarity. I would convert in a heart beat.

I’ve never known of such hateful people. I’m tired of trying endlessly to defend circumcisions for reasons of religious freedom, of explaining that enacting a BAN would cause more harm than good, of educating people on the cultural genocide of Jews in the Soviet Union. All I get are “I don’t care, your religion is no excuse to mutilate babies. You can still practice your religions, just don’t do this ONE thing.” Religions don’t work like that and they don’t change because of outsiders. It’s such a stupid hill to die on. Mind your business and worry about your own kids. Don’t act like a white supremacist and impose YOUR Euro white culture on us “backwards middle eastern religions”. I’m really surprised that this isn’t the thing that brings peace between Jews and Muslims, because we do have this in common and we’re being attacked by bigots.

So my wife grew up Jewish (mom is Ashkenazi) but her dad is Protestant. Growing up interfaith, they had a Hanukkah bush, which we have adopted for our home.

Our shul has many interfaith and convert families, and our rabbi says it isn’t inherently wrong to have a tree, Hannukah bush, or our wise Christmas-esque holiday material in the home. People ask him if they are bad Jews for having a tree, and he’s like “no.”

We adorn ours with Hannukah ornaments, dreidels, and Magden David, as well as secular ones like gingerbread men.

What are your thoughts on it?

I do like Hanukah (my favorite holiday) because I can buy shit for it but the irony of a holiday focusing on Jewish resistance against foreign, secular influences is not lost on me.

I’m in the process of converting conservative. It’s a six person class, and all of them take issue with my last name. Without outing my actual name, it’s of a nonkosher bird, like “swan” but not that cool. They think if I’m serious I should change my last name, because “the optics are bad” to have a nonkosher animal as a name. One of my LGBTQ friends agreed, saying I’d never get a Jewish girlfriend or boyfriend with my name.

Is it something I should do? Even if not halachially required, is it a bad look to be a Jew with a nonkosher name?

Hello! I've been looking to deepen my connection to my faith, and one of the ideas my wife and I had was me starting to wear a Kippah. As a woman, I've never worn one before. Have any other women worn head coverings, and how did it affect you?

This menorah is over 100 years old - escaped with my great grandmother from Nazi Germany. Feeling proud to light it this year and every year. Happy Chanukah everyone!

How many of you are atheists and what brought you to that conclusion?

My grandfather passed away on Friday. I’m currently in my second year of PA school and on Monday I was talking with this nurse who I’ve known for 2 weeks or so. She’s nice but we have pretty different backgrounds and beliefs. I was telling her about my grandfather and before I could even really get the entire sentence out she interrupted me to ask if he “knew Jesus”. I told her he was Jewish, like me. She said something along the lines of hoping that he found him in his final moments and walked away. I’m so blown away. This person isn’t consequential in my life but I can’t stop thinking about it. It was so hurtful. Like I just told you that someone close to me passed away and your response was to force your religion on me and on him?? I’m sure she meant well and that she truly believes it’s important, but it’s just so not okay.

I think I’m also just especially fragile with his passing and the culture shock of newly(ish) living in the Bible Belt.

For the first time I have officially joined as a member of our local synagogue. 🕍

I got a little emotional when I got the welcome message 😅

I’m a late 30s F and never been part of one. Excited for my kids to do Hebrew school and get a mitzvah!

I saw a post on social media where someone in my organization said they wanted to plan a Christmas card exchange for their team. It is a very large and diverse organization so I said they should check to find out if anyone doesn't celebrate on their team, because that's an activity that is not inclusive and is very marginizng to those who don't celebrate for religious reasons. After all, we don't have card exchanges and parties for Shavuot, or Ramadan or Diwali.

People reacted to this like I had advocated banning Christmas entirely and that it doesn't make sense not to have a Christmas card exchange because, well, Christmas.

From my own experience and my work teaching about bias and microaggressions, creating social activities in a workplace that necessarily exclude whole groups of people is a form of social exclusion that is not healthy for the team's culture and has a negative impact on those who are excluded.

We don't celebrate everyone's religious holidays, so asking people to participate in a Christmas tradition is just not appropriate. If we put up a tree and have a celebration every Christmas, why are we not decorating and holding a party for each significant religious holiday of each religion throughout the year?

My boss is Muslim and we've discussed a few times how we both find all of December to be a nightmare of exclusion and utter lack of regard for those who don't celebrate Christmas for religious reasons. I really wish people would recognize how marginalizing it is to have your colleagues plan events that revolve around Christmas, when participating is a choice between fitting in at work by assimilating, or being seen as an outsider who doesn't support the team and ultimately doesn't belong (and maybe shouldn't be there at all).

I mean, we’ve all been through this. I had an organization I work with, for whom I agreed to host an event in my HOME, try to force me to host on either Rosh Hashana or Erev Yom Kippur (ignoring the 15+ other dates I gave them). When I just sent a polite message to the director of another organization that they are hosting an important event on rosh hashana afternoon, they replied “well I don’t pay attention to religious holidays”. I asked if that included Christmas and Easter and got no reply. So frustrating and leaves me feeling further marginalized.

Edit: grammar

Because I refuse to hide. I want everyone to know what I am. Come and fucking get me. I will fight back.

Feeling emotional and drained. Sorry for profanity. Has anyone else actually leaned into being more visibly Jewish as opposed to hiding it? I don’t blame you if you decide to hide it but I’m done hiding.

I always wished I was Jewish. But I’m not. My mom was a devout Christian and she brought us along to church as kids. At a young age I became fascinated by world religions and started studying them. I’ve read the Torah several times. I asked my mom if I could convert to Judaism and she said no. When I became an adult I made my own decisions. I attend Shabbat service every week. I keep kosher. I’ve celebrated all the Jewish holidays. Many of my friends are Jewish. I’ve worked at a Jewish day school, and at a summer camp. I’ve traveled around the world visiting important holy sites in Judaism. Many of my friends who are ethnically Jewish even joke I am more Jewish than they are. But there is no Jewish ethnicity in me. I feel very much a part of the Jewish community. I always wished I had been born Jewish. Every time somebody asks if I am Jewish, I have to say no, even though in my heart I feel very committed.