Embracing Judaism : Personal Narratives of Renewed Faith Book

Three years ago, my husband and I wrote and produced a documentary called Embracing Judaism: Reaching In, Reaching Out, Reaching Up. It consisted of interviews with people who talked about their increased connection to their Jewish faith.

The documentary aired on a Sunday morning on most ABC affiliate stations. Though our names and our company's name were listed in the credits, there was no address or phone number by which to contact us. Nevertheless, the following Monday morning we received hundreds of phone calls from people who had seen it and wanted to buy a copy and those who hadn't seen it but had heard about it and wanted to view it. Calls from all over the country.

It was clear to me that the documentary had touched a nerve. A voice had been given to people's experiences. They wanted both to validate their own feelings and to learn more about what they were witnessing.

So I continued to do research and interview people, listening to their stories. After hundreds of interviews, I have found that although there is cause for reflection and even concern in the Jewish community as to the future of American Jewry, there is a budding population of Jewishly committed people who are reconnecting in a myriad of ways and synthesizing Judaism into the very heart of their lives. In small acts of observances or in larger commitments. Whatever the length of the step, the stride is there.

This book contains interviews with some of those people. People who like Joanie, were brought up in secular homes and as an adult, became more observant. People like Spencer who had explored Zen, but came back to his faith. People like Theodore whose family was in the KKK, and after a violent childhood filled with sexual abuse, became a psychiatrist and chose the Jewish faith. People like opera singer Valentin, who came from the Soviet Union and found his faith in the United States and people like Wendy whose connection to her faith is entwined with her artwork.

Interviews with a number of nationally known rabbis, e.g. J.J. Schacter, Gershon Winkler and Shefa Gold are included.

The book contains over twenty-five narratives of personal connection. Positive experiences of many Jews in the hope that others who read this book, contemplating a return, may feel empowered. Each path may be different: through community, through cultural traditions and for many, through ritual. It has been said that rituals are containers that hold people together and bind them to God. The stories in this book reflect people who have decided to lift up that container and see exactly what it holds for them.