JERRY ZOLYNSKY

continued on page 20

 FEBRUARY 20 • 2020 | 19

Long Road Home 

James Allen Jones, 94, has had 
a six-decade journey to Judaism. 

ALLISON JACOBS DIGITAL EDITOR
T

emple Beth El member 
Dr. James Allen Jones 
is 94 years old, but he 
could easily pass for 70. He 
stands tall, dressed in a casual 
suit with a purple vest and tie. 
He doesn’
t need any help get-
ting around, and he has plenty 
to say — especially about his 
conversion from Christianity 
to Judaism at age 92. 
Jones’
 gravitation toward 
Judaism started during his 
early childhood. 
“When I was just 3 or 4 
years old, I used to stand in 
our back window and look out 
at the garden, and somehow 
something just grabbed me 
that there was the presence of 
God,” Jones said. 
He was born in Detroit’
s 
Conant Gardens neighbor-
hood, known as the most pros-
perous, predominantly mid-
dle-class African American 
neighborhood in the city at 
the time. His father was a 
Baptist minister who never 
pushed him to attend church, 
and his mother would tell him 
the story of Creation at night 
before bed.
At age 6, Jones was hungry 
to learn about religion and 
wanted to enroll in catechism 
classes. Jones looks back on 
that moment, recalling his 
father’
s words of wisdom: 
“If you want to be a good 
Catholic, you’
re going to have 
to be a good Jew first — and 
it’
s going to take you all your 
life.”
During his teenage years, 

Jones was involved in a diverse 
church. He was the young-
est member of the choir and 
became baptized at 15.
“I was about to tell them I 
don’
t really believe this, but 
then I thought, if I don’
t, they 
won’
t baptize me,” Jones said.
His interest in Judaism 
became more pronounced 
after his next-door neighbor, 
Lena Ringgold, gave him a 
Victrola turntable with hun-
dreds of records of operas and 
Jewish songs.
“That’
s when I heard ‘
Kol 
Nidre’
 and all of these Jewish 
chants — and so I listened 
every morning and every 
night,” Jones said.
Another major turning 
point for Jones was in 1957, 
when he became a Fulbright 
Scholar in Leeds, England, 
studying education. While 
teaching at an elementary 
school, he was introduced to a 
Jewish man who invited Jones 
to star in an upcoming perfor-
mance of Othello.
As a lover of Shakespeare 
and performance, Jones 
accepted the role. One of the 
first shows was in front of a 
Hadassah group, and while 
Jones was backstage, a young 
Hadassah member encouraged 
him to spend his next term 
teaching at the Talbot Road 
Jewish School in England. 
Jones accepted the position 
and was assigned to a class 
of 27 boys, where he taught 
Introduction to Torah and the 
Prophets.

“
After introducing myself 
to that, something in me 
said, ‘
This is where you 
belong,’
” Jones said. “It was in 
December — I’
ll never for-
get — when I decided I was 
going to do it.” He was going 
to convert.

FURTHER EXPLORATION
Jones mentally made his deci-
sion at 32, but he wouldn’
t 
formally begin the conversion 
process for several decades. 
In the meantime, he returned 
to Detroit, where he exposed 
himself to different facets of 
Judaism. 
“I explored ultra-Ortho-
dox, Orthodox, Humanistic 
— about six, seven different 
ones,” Jones said. “I used to 
come out to different syna-
gogues and temples for Torah 

study and classes.”
In 1974, Jones was invit-
ed by the Temple Beth El 
music director at the time, 
Jason Tickton, to take an 
Introduction to Judaism 
course with a focus on music, 
which he says pushed him 
further toward Judaism. 
He later joined the Grosse 
Pointe Jewish Council, where 
he stayed for 15 years and 
became the 26th president.
It wasn’
t until Jones found 
the synagogue that spoke to 
him that he was ready to con-
vert. 
“It was about finding a place 
that gave me the spiritual sat-
isfaction,” Jones said. “With 
Temple Beth El, it was a warm, 
different kind of a welcome. 
When people find out who 
you are, they will come to you 

James Allen Jones is at 
home in the chapel at 
Temple Beth El. 

