In “Tired of Living in Fear”, Ariella Barker, a convert to Judaism talks about the struggles of being an outsider in Judaism…just in time for Shavuot.
Unfortunately, this is what it’s come to for a lot of us. While many Jews go about their days cluelessly, the rest of us live and breath a Judaism in which converts, the children of converts, the grandchildren of converts, the loved ones of converts, everywhere live in fear.
But Ariella Barker does not accept this. Despite the current conversion climate, despite the Jews who refuse to accept her and the nameless, faceless converts they slander every day, Barker says, “I will never again be made to feel like an outsider.”
If only all of us were so strong, strong enough to stand up for suffering converts everywhere and against the real “fake Jews” who are using converts worldwide as scapegoats in a Jewish tug of war.
Yes, of course, a happy Shavuot to all…full to the brim with cheesecake and Lactaid pills! But thanks to Ariella Barker, more of us will go into this one with our eyes open.
Memoirs of a Jewminicana 