Becoming Jewish was contacted by a young man in Italy who wanted to convert to Judaism. This is his story as told to us.
One day I was on the couch with my boyfriend watching an episode of Sex and the City, in which one of the characters decides to convert to Judaism to marry the man she loves.
"You know, I always want to become a Jew," I said to Yonatan, my boyfriend.
"Seriously, why?"
"Some years ago, I discovered that a part of my mother’s family, in Sicily, was Jewish. Besides, I love everything Jewish. The culture, the religion, the history, so fascinating."
My boyfriend looked at me in a very strange way.
"What?" I asked him.
"It's weird what you've just said."
"Why?"
"Because I want to become Jewish too."
"Since when?"
"Since I was a teenager. There's no reason, I just feel very drawn to Judaism."
I started to look for a rabbi for the conversion but, at least in Italy, the chances were very few because of our situation. Yonatan was not Jewish by blood at all, and both of us were gay.
So I expanded my search criteria, and I tried to find a rabbi in France, Germany, England, or some other countries of northern Europe, but nothing worked out.
One day, I read a very interesting article on the net that spoke about conversion and I contacted the person who wrote it. Dawn was very nice to me, and she really made the effort to help me. She gave me a list of different American rabbis, and after a few months, I finally found the right rabbi.
Rabbi Frank agreed to convert us after a period of teaching and studying. The study was quite hard but very interesting. We both found some difficulty with the language and the many names and meanings of holidays and other aspects of the Jewish world. After a year we flew to New York City for the “final exam”, in front of our rabbi, and we passed.
But it's not a piece of paper that makes you a Jew. You feel in your heart, when you are ready. It doesn't matter what other people say and what other people expect from you as a new convert. Focus on your goals and do everything to get them.
Now, we have been Jews for almost one year, and we continue to discover day by day new things about this new life. Most of the times it's not easy, but worth it.
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