16.
“I met my husband when we were in high school. We started dating after a year at 15 and 16. I spent many dinners, weekends, and holidays with his family because my home life was extremely chaotic. We married in our early 20s, and I decided to convert to his family’s religion, which was Reformed Judaism. We’re in our 30s now, and I’ve never not felt accepted as a Jew within his family, nor did I feel any pressure to convert. The only pushback I received was from my Baptist grandmother, who didn’t speak to me for a year after my wedding.”
“I appreciate that our religion preaches science, education, acceptance, and change first, and the Torah and other practices and beliefs second. Nothing is pushed on you, and all are accepted into the community. It feels like a missing piece that I was missing in my childhood was put into place when I converted. We plan to send our daughter to the same after-school Hebrew school my husband attended, but will also allow her to opt out of any and all faith-based practices if she so chooses. I plan to be Bat Mitzvah’d myself in the coming years.”
—Anonymous
Source: https://www.buzzfeed.com/ajanibazile/married-into-faith-stories
