I heard the term “fake Jew” for the first time at a small Shabbos dinner gathering many years ago. It was actually a celebratory pot-luck for a friend that had just had her Beit Din and had successfully converted to Judaism. She had an Israeli boyfriend and had planned to move to Israel with him, but her conversion had been a personal matter that predated this relationship. One of the invitees in a quite varied group was an older lady, a born Jew of Sephardic heritage. She had at one point after the discussion of making Aliya asked my friend about her own parentage. When my friend responded and then commented that she has just converted, the guest nodded and quipped, “Oh, so you are one of those fake Jews.” This wasn’t the last time that I have heard this term or some crass variation used. Sometimes those commenting simply are repeating something that they have unfortunately learned and on which they have never been challenged, others have dr...
In the course of my rabbinical studies I have already been gifted with amazing opportunities and experiences. This summer as I study in Jerusalem at the Steinsaltz Yeshiva , however, one of the most intense of these experiences has arisen -- I was invited to sing with the choir at the Great Synagogue of Jerusalem for Selichot and the High Holy Days. Well, streaming vids are worth several terabytes worth of words, so I am posting a link to a video here -- sorry, I cannot imbed it and the site is all Hebrew -- that might help shed a little light on the nature of the experience. Several groups filmed Selichot this year at the Great Synagogue -- the sound is not great but certainly gives a little idea as to the nature of the music. For those of you that are not Jewish, and maybe even for some that are, this might be a bit of an alien experience. This video is 25 edited minutes from a 3 hour service that lasted until 1 in the morning (and unfortunately does not contain the early part...
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