Choosing a Jewish Life, Revised and Updated: A Handbook for People Converting to Judaism and for Their Family and Friends

Jews have never believed themselves possessed of the only “true” faith or exclusive pathway to God, which is why Judaism was never a missionary religion. Since the rabbis taught that all the righteous among the nations could attain “the world to come,” there was no need to save the souls of non-Jews; their own religions gave them access to the Holy

People become Jewish because they love the heat and light of text study, because they want to be part of a people and history that loves justice, because they love the idea of belonging to a worldwide family, because they love Torah.

On the occasion of her conversion, Mary Russell wrote, “Judaism has allowed me to lay down my intellectual defenses and to stand, unprotected by cynicism, before the idea of a God who cares passionately about the human moral drama and gives it meaning by remembering our actions and our choices.”

IF YOU ARE IN THE PROCESS of becoming Jewish, clear off a bookshelf. Better yet, buy a new bookcase.

Becoming a Jew means choosing to enter into that covenant through which, in turn, God chooses you. It is a mutual, voluntary embrace.

Judaism defies definition as a religion pure and simple. Unlike other religions, Judaism also refers to a civilization and a culture. The Jews have been called a nation, a tribe, a race, a folk, an ethnic group, and the “people of the book.”

it’s important to remember that you choose a Judaism when you choose to become a Jew.

you perform a mitzvah by giving someone else the opportunity to do the mitzvah of helping you find your way.

From synagogue pulpits of every denomination, the message is repeated so often that it has become a truism: “We are all Jews by choice.”