Page 38 - issue
P. 38
Jews by Choice
put what I learned into practice,” says Tzadik Lev. “We
ended up converting Conservative and then converted,
again, to Orthodoxy. It was the culmination of a learning
cycle of many years, for me and many years for Tikvah.”
Tzdik Lev majored in philosophy at Gettysburg College
and took courses in Judaism and the New Testament so
that he could converse intelligently to people about
Christianity. Even in his fraternity, he recalls always being
the guy who would talk with the J’s Witnesses or other
missionaries who came to the door. He feels these discus-
sions contributed greatly to his decision to make law his
career. He received his JD and MBA at Suffolk University
and presently is an Associate at Snider & Associates, LLC,
in Baltimore.
While Tzadik Lev was studying at Suffolk University,
Tikvah attend Lesley University, where she received a mas-
ter’s in expressive therapies with a specialty in mental
health counseling. She recently received her licensed clin-
ical professional counselor (LCPC) certification and is
looking to branch out and do consultation work privately
in expressive therapy and mental health counseling.
Aha Moments
Tikvah vividly recalls the turning point for her. “I was sit-
ting in a parking lot and saying, ‘G-d, I am just trying to
find You, and I don’t know why it should be this hard.’ I
always had this spirituality; all I needed was a framework.
Some people ask, ‘Don’t you find the halacha constraining
and restrictive?’ I answer with all sincerity, ‘Honestly, it is
freeing for me because there was a sense of I have this
spirituality and have no container to express it through; I
have no direction to figure out how to use it or how to cul-
tivate it. It’s like having a beautiful bouquet of roses with-
out the appropriate vase to put it in. I finally found my
vase.”
Tzadik Lev adds, “After we graduated, we decided we
wanted to start growing our family, but we knew that, as
Conservatives, once we had a child, he or she would not
be accepted by everybody, in terms of being Jewish. It
would have been completely heartbreaking to think that
we would have gone through all of this and sacrificed
what we sacrificed only to bring a Jewish child into the
world who would not have been accepted everywhere. We
knew at that point, before having children, that we would
have to have an Orthodox conversion.”
As Tzadik Lev explains, becoming Orthodox was just a
confirmation for him of what he had already done. “When
I converted to Conservative, I went to the mikvah, I went
to a mohel, I had to sit before a beis din, I did all the same
things as when I converted Orthodox. I considered myself
Jewish at that time, but, at the end of the day, what
changed me was speaking to a rabbi, who said to me, ‘The
main reason Orthodox rabbis don’t hold by Conservative
30 u www.wherewhatwhen.com u
put what I learned into practice,” says Tzadik Lev. “We
ended up converting Conservative and then converted,
again, to Orthodoxy. It was the culmination of a learning
cycle of many years, for me and many years for Tikvah.”
Tzdik Lev majored in philosophy at Gettysburg College
and took courses in Judaism and the New Testament so
that he could converse intelligently to people about
Christianity. Even in his fraternity, he recalls always being
the guy who would talk with the J’s Witnesses or other
missionaries who came to the door. He feels these discus-
sions contributed greatly to his decision to make law his
career. He received his JD and MBA at Suffolk University
and presently is an Associate at Snider & Associates, LLC,
in Baltimore.
While Tzadik Lev was studying at Suffolk University,
Tikvah attend Lesley University, where she received a mas-
ter’s in expressive therapies with a specialty in mental
health counseling. She recently received her licensed clin-
ical professional counselor (LCPC) certification and is
looking to branch out and do consultation work privately
in expressive therapy and mental health counseling.
Aha Moments
Tikvah vividly recalls the turning point for her. “I was sit-
ting in a parking lot and saying, ‘G-d, I am just trying to
find You, and I don’t know why it should be this hard.’ I
always had this spirituality; all I needed was a framework.
Some people ask, ‘Don’t you find the halacha constraining
and restrictive?’ I answer with all sincerity, ‘Honestly, it is
freeing for me because there was a sense of I have this
spirituality and have no container to express it through; I
have no direction to figure out how to use it or how to cul-
tivate it. It’s like having a beautiful bouquet of roses with-
out the appropriate vase to put it in. I finally found my
vase.”
Tzadik Lev adds, “After we graduated, we decided we
wanted to start growing our family, but we knew that, as
Conservatives, once we had a child, he or she would not
be accepted by everybody, in terms of being Jewish. It
would have been completely heartbreaking to think that
we would have gone through all of this and sacrificed
what we sacrificed only to bring a Jewish child into the
world who would not have been accepted everywhere. We
knew at that point, before having children, that we would
have to have an Orthodox conversion.”
As Tzadik Lev explains, becoming Orthodox was just a
confirmation for him of what he had already done. “When
I converted to Conservative, I went to the mikvah, I went
to a mohel, I had to sit before a beis din, I did all the same
things as when I converted Orthodox. I considered myself
Jewish at that time, but, at the end of the day, what
changed me was speaking to a rabbi, who said to me, ‘The
main reason Orthodox rabbis don’t hold by Conservative
30 u www.wherewhatwhen.com u
