Opinion
Other Views
Path To Conversion
blooms of the spring. To
I want to know.
our delight as bird
Becoming Jewish before
watchers, white storks,
Israel became a state
giant oriental gliders
meant learning phrases,
with a wing span of over
prayers and Hebrew
five feet, were migrating
words like Yerushalayim,
from Africa to Europe
Mt. Zion, mitsrayim,
over the Great Rift
Shehechiyanu and l'dor
Valley. Like them, we
v'dor. Becoming Jewish
were there floating
since Israel became a state
through the thermal cur-
means knowing in very
VIVIAN DEGAIN
rents, in answer to some
tangible and sensual ways
ancient instinct and voice. Community View
that Mt. Zion is a place.
The birds require the
Mt. Zion is sand and
warm currents to provide
stones and hills under my
them the means to support their enor-
feet. There, the Kotel (Western Wall)
mous body weight for the long cross-
is a wall standing for some 2,000-
continental flights.
plus years; it is bumpy and cool to
Our group "glided along" with the
the touch. Yerushalayim is a city, a
freedom, a very deli-
cate freedom.
Since being in
Israel, I want to find
the vocabulary to
explain to Jews and
gentiles that there,
hundreds of laughing
children play in
neighborhoods within
feet of bunkers. They
seem to know this
and play outside in
the courtyards any-
way.
• Wanting to be
Jewish is wanting for
them and myself,
peace, prosperity and
identity. That being
there was knowing
what home is, and
like having visited a
cemetery with a stone
that I've brought to
my own heart.
In front of the mural on the Southern Wall in Jerusalem, Rabbi Klein begins a Shabbat service.
In many places on
Vivian DeGain is at far left.
the trip, Israelis
would see us,
approach us and ask,
constant support, insight and transla-
"Is this your first trip to Israel" . and
Israel and with the Jewish people, the
tion of our rabbi and Amir Or-li from
"What do you think?" As an
basic pulls that drew me to conver-
Keshet
Tours.
American
in the Negev, I was dumb-
sion.
We
saw
people
in
every
imaginable
struck
by
the
immense beauty and
Though I was raised Catholic, the
garb, Bedouin women wrapped in
spirituality in Mitzpeh Ramon, or in
Jews in my life — and their intelli-
blankets, Tel Aviv women wearing
the mountains climbing to Masada.
gence and compassion — inspired me
bikinis, Moslem women wearing
No wonder enormous religions have
to heal myself during most difficult
burkas, Jewish men wearing the black
sprung from this land. No wonder.
challenges as well as instructed me
My journey to conversion will con-
about tikkun olam, repair of the world. hats, suits and coats of Orthodoxy. It's
no
surprise
to
Jewish
people
that
land-
tinue
over these next months with
As coincidences go, we found them
ing
in
Israel
arrives
with
intense
joy,
Rabbi
Klein, learning more about the
all over the place as we landed at Ben-
recognition and feeling that one is
liturgy and Jewish holidays, tradi-
Gurion Airport outside Tel Aviv.
home — safe at last.
tions, Second Temple history and
The Israeli desert was colored in the
For me, to go as part of the process
Israel's independence. He's intro-
crimson, fuchsia and bright yellow
of becoming gioret, the trip brought
duced me to Israeli poets and Jewish
me to a language, a landscape, a peo-
literature — and I've only scratched
Vivian DeGain lives in
ple and a history that transcended
the surface of what will be a lifetime
Rochester Hills.
everything I had known to everything
of study.
W
can you
spot the
changes?
The jisi
is undergoing
a series of
upgrades
that will improve
the flow and feel
of your weekly
connection to news
and information
about and
of interest to the
Detroit Jewish
community. Your
favorite feature
or column may
migrate to a new
home in the JN.
3141
6/16
2005
30
be sure to check
the Index on
page 3
hen I began to study with
Rabbi Joseph Klein at
Temple Emanu-El in Oak
Park last fall to become Jewish, he had
been planning, coincidentally, to lead
an adult study tour through Israel in
April. Some coincidences are no acci-
dents, and there was room for us.
My husband, Doug, is not Jewish,
but agreed that any trip with Rabbi
Klein to Jerusalem, to an archeological
dig in Tel Maresha at Bet Guvrin, to
the Negev, Dead Sea, Masada, Tel Aviv
and Tzfat, would be the trip of a life-
time. It was our first trip abroad
together in 23 years of marriage.
Every moment of the journey creat-
ed discovery and opportunity to pro-
foundly connect with the Land of
❑