Challenging the Norm

Last year, I took an English class in which our major focuses were feminism and sexuality. Women's lit classes tend to be that way, but it was honestly one of the most beneficial classes I have taken in college. The best classes are the ones that help you grow as a person, and this particular class helped me understand conversion and Jewish identity better than any Jewish studies class I've taken. Feminist and queer studies are all about challenging the status quo. The feminist movement is about moving away from gender stereotypes ingrained in our society. Our final project was about challenging the norm and we had to use three different texts to discuss the ideas (obviously more complex than what I am telling you). There was a creative option to this prompt: use yourself as one of the three texts. 

At first, I wasn't thrilled at the idea of telling a college professor my story. But as she told us the last day, she was very honest and much more open than she normally is in class because the point at the end was for us to take a risk and put ourselves in the work we'd done all quarter. Since this was one of the best classes I'd taken and she had been terribly honest, I felt obligated to be equally as honest. So I took the creative option, and I learned a lot about myself in doing so.

Converting to Judaism isn't just about changing your religious affiliation, not in this country. If you're in Israel and you convert, then you're joining the majority. But in the Diaspora, you're joining a minority. In the west, you're joining the minority that has, historically, been persecuted by the majority religion and is extremely misunderstood by the majority. Christianity has inseparable ties to Judaism, historically and religiously. When you convert to Judaism, you have to face the questions from your Christian family and friends "Why are you doing this?" and maybe even "Why are you rejecting Jesus?" You walk away from the normative culture when you convert to Judaism. It's not really about rejecting Christianity or Jesus; it's about other people seeing it that way. You have to deal with people's views about non-Christian religions and the Jewish religion.

Whether or not we want it to be this way, converting to Judaism is a challenge to the norm and we have to accept the consequences of embracing that challenge. This is where a lot the emotional stress of converting comes from. Even though I see myself as already having shed the Christian identity my parents gave me, many people might not recognize that. I have to go through their process of shedding that identity they see me having.

---------------------

The Project

*please note that I did oversimplify a few things for this.

The Story:

I am one of .03% of people in this country who identify JBC. Watch.

The Norm:

Despite our constitution saying that government shall establish no religion, some

people think it should. The majority of our country is Christian and most people,

especially in small towns, take for granted that other religions even exist. Because

the pilgrims were Puritan Christians fleeing the mainline Protestant persecution

in England, people think that our Founding Fathers founded Christianity here.

The idea of this norm is furthered by the strong proselytizing nature of

Christianity. It's ultimate goal (at least at its inception) is for all the world to be

Christian, so many Christians have a hard time accepting that anyone would

willingly be non-Christian.

The Reality:

Over three-fourths of our country identify as Christians. But the next

largest religious group, is all together non-religious: atheists, agnostics,

and otherwise unassociated come in at about 15%. Right now, Jews are

the third largest religious group in America but because Islam is a

proselytizing religion, it will soon surpass Judaism in size. Eastern

religious such as Buddhism, Hinduism, Skihism, and Baha'i also exist in

America. There are also Free Masons, Wiccas, Scientologists, and

Universal Unitarianists. Regardless of how small the numbers of these

groups are, they are examples beyond the norm.

The Challenge:

The challenge for me and for all Jews is to face Christians who fervently believe that Jesus was the Jewish Messiah and that Jews are stubborn for not accepting this. Most Christians have not the slightest idea why Jesus was not the Messiah (mainly, no peace on Earth) and that Christian theology has now diverged from that Jewish belief to include a son of G-d which conflicts with traditional monotheism. It's not fun to be told you're going to hell, but it happens. What may be more challenging is antisemitism from the average Joe Shmoe. I can't tell you how many times people have told me "antisemitism doesn't exist anymore." People have no idea when they're being antisemitic. Challenging people's assumptions about what Jews believe, how they act, and fighting antisemitism is twice the convert's job because he/she knows and comes into contact with so many nonJews/Christians. Christians want to know WHY? What are you doing? WHY are you REJECTING Jesus Christ/the lord/savior/son of god/messiah???? It's very simple: he was not Adonai, the G-d of Jacob, Isaac, and Abraham. But I am in a unique position to teach people about Judaism/other than Christian-religions. My roommates from freshman year surprisingly love to learn about this complex religion/people. They learn a great deal, and are better people for it.