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rison inmates who change deeply into Judaism. He is work-
religions is not a new sto- ing with Rabbi Yisroel Wein-
ry. Malcolm X converted to garten, a Lubavitch rabbi in
Islam in jail, and it became Flint, toward having an Ortho-
the major force in his life and dox conversion.
"He's a very sincere individ-
work.
But the story of Douglas ual," Rabbi Weingarten says.
Burgess, an inmate at Saginaw "He's really going for it, and is
Regional Facility in Freeling, has ambitious to get this done."
Rabbi Weingarten was im-
a bit of a twist. Having served 10
years of a life sentence for mur- pressed to learn from the prison
der, he is converting to Judaism chaplain that Mr. Burgess wears
— for the second time. And help- a kippah and has earned the re-
ing him through the process is a spect of other inmates.
Rabbi Weingarten says Mr.
91-year-old Southfield resident,
Neil Kalef, whom Mr. Burgess Burgess' status as an inmate will
not be a deterrant to conversion.
calls his friend and mentor.
"There is something called
The two corresponded for more
than four years before meeting teshuvah, which is repentance,"
he says. "It's definitely applica-
this past July.
"I was so excited," Mr. Kalef ble in this case. There's so much
said of the two-hour visit. "The
evening I came home, I kept
thinking about it. It was like a
tape rewinding on another reel.
I felt so close to him.
"He's a brilliant chap," Mr.
Kalef says. "He's a great guy. I
feel he's genuine."
Mr. Kalef met Mr. Burgess by
responding to a Jewish News ar-
ticle about a B'nai B'rith pen-pal
program for incarcerated•Jews.
But when Mr. Kalef read the pris-
oner's name on a letter from the
organization, he was puzzled.
"I wrote him that it seemed to
OtioutV.V,
me by his name that he wasn't Jew-
ish," Mr. Kalef says. "He wrote back
itat
4411"Y
that yes, it was true, his name isn't
Jewish, but he was in the process
of converting to Judaism."
Born a Catholic, Mr. Burgess
worked with Reform Rabbi Bruce
Aft for his first conversion while
at Kinross Correctional Facility
in the Upper Peninsula. He stud-
ied for four years before his Aug.
12, 1992 ceremony, which in-
cluded symbolic circumcision and Douglas Burgess
a triple immersion in the prison's
involved here, what we could call
shower-turned-mikvah.
Since then, Mr. Burgess `red tape.' But there's a lot of po-
earned a bachelor's degree in ed- tential."
Throughout this process, Mr.
ucation through a correspondence
course and wrote a book on prison Kalefs role has been one of friend-
life. He was transferred to Sagi- ship and guidance. He sent Mr.
naw Regional Facility in Decem- Burgess tzitzit and supported him
ber 1993, where he is secretary when the Department of Correc-
to the chaplain and prison li- tions refused for security reasons
brarian. He has confided to Mr. to let him receive tefillin, the
Kalef his ambition to become a leather straps and boxes worn
during morning prayers.
prison chaplain himself.
"I was involved just with the
"He's self-taught," Mr. Kalef
says. "You can tell by the way he correspondence," Mr. Kalef says.
got his degree in education at a "He asks questions in every let-
correspondence college. You've ter — what's with this, what's
got to be really interested in with that — and I do my best to
learning to do something like answer. Sometimes I have to look
up in the Mishnah what he's talk-
that."
His ambition to be a Jewish ing about."
Mr. Kalefs Orthodox upbring-
prison chaplain pulled him more
Neil Kalef
ing serves as a model for Mr.
Burgess' new lifestyle in prison.
In his first letter, Mr. Kalef wrote
that at 86, he attends synagogue
daily and lays tefillin six days a
week. He advised Mr. Burgess to
be patient with his own spiritual
development. 'There's no instant
anything, except coffee," he wrote.
Mr. Kalef says he speaks about
his pen pal with friends. And on
July 19, he did more than talk.
With his son and daughter-in-
law, Maynard and Nancy, he
traveled to the Saginaw prison to
connect a face to the four-year-
old letter collection.
"We shook hands," Mr. Kalef
says. "We sat at a little table. I ex-
pected to sit across from him with
a screen between us, like you see
in the movies. I was surprised to
be in this great, big room, with
a pop machine and people sitting
around tables, about 40 or 45 peo-
ple. Children came to visit their
parents. He was wearing regular
jeans and a shirt— no prison uni-
form."
They talked like old friends, be-
cause they knew so much about
each other. The two-hour visit
flew by.
"It was quite an emotionally
charged meeting between a 29-
year-old inmate and a 91-year-
old man," Mr. Kalef says.
Mr. Burgess hopes to be eligi-
ble for parole in four or five years.
His pen pal looks forward to
maintaining the friendship out-
side of prison.
"I feel I've helped him, and he
feels it too," Mr. Kalef says. "It's
an experience, one in a million,
that people don't get."