JewishFringe

Last year, about this time on the Hebrew calendar, I was celebrating becoming a Jew.  (Although looking at that blog post, I always thought that I converted on November 17 and it was the 16th, so yesterday was my anniversary, not today.  Oops.) 

I’m sure that in a few years, this date will shrink in importance.  I’ll have (God willing) a wedding anniversary and children’s birthdays, but for now this is one of the most important Jewish dates on my calendar.  My Jewish Birthday, my Jew Day, my Jewversary… oh, the wordplay never ends, does it?

I asked myself a few weeks ago, “How will I celebrate?”  Then the universe answered for me on Saturday morning.  I sat in a common area on the floor in a circle with 26 students from the religious school at my shul.  We were on retreat and I was there to teach them how to be Jewish Storytellers.

The rabbi commented on my tallis, a beautiful item I bought at the top of Ben Yehuda in Jerusalem.  She asked what the story was and I talked about how I converted and took a trip to Israel shortly after my conversion.  I said that maybe one day, my own children would wear my tallis when they become bar or bat mitzvah.  Another teacher told me that the students were totally focused on what I was saying, that it was good, because many of them had never heard a story of conversion.

I thought it was important, because I know which of their parents converted and have an idea of who was adopted and converted as a baby.  I thought it was important for those kids to know, there is a teacher here like you or like your father.  “We weren’t all born Jewish, but we are all Jews today and we can all pray together, make art together, and tell stories.”

Later that night, we were at a campfire.  We finished Havdalah and a few students were out collecting sticks for s’mores.  I got everyone to sit around the fire and read to them from a collection of Jewish fairytales.  Again, they were totally focused and I was shocked.

Who are these kids?  They can’t sit still to eat dinner, but they’ll sit to hear stories and to give thanks for miracles small and large.  And that was how I celebrated my anniversary of joining the Jewish people–by teaching our stories to the next generation of Jews.