Okay, so what was the actual conversion like?
[Note: You can read more about the ritual aspects of conversion at www.convert.org.] The beit din (a Jewish religious court consisting of three rabbis, or, by extension, the hearing in front of same, which is required in conversion) was a very emotional process for me. That is, the questioning itself was easier than I expected; I felt like I’d be walking into a job interview or, worse, an oral exam. But it was much more conversational and all the rabbis really made me feel at ease. They were basically sounding me out on questions like “What is it that draws you to Judaism?” — questions that I’d certainly already put a lot of thought into for myself and discussed with other people at great length. [Side note: While I was completing the conversion course in the spring of 1996, my friend and then-housemate Sara Ravid (hi, Sara!) was a senior at Brandeis and taking a documentary filmmaking course. For her film project, she decided to do a short documentary on conversion at Brandeis — bec
