我坐在美国犹太大学图书馆的孩子段，看着货架上的所有书籍。虽然我看到了一堆关于这本书的书Jewish holidaysand food and traditions, I didn’t see one book on conversion. How could it be?
So, I thought: This book needs to exist. And as a convert, I wanted to be the one to write it.
Though I wasn’t yet a parent, I wanted my future孩子们学习关于我的转换故事以及我如何遇到他们的父亲和我的丈夫，Daniel Lobell。我希望他们为自己的根源感到骄傲，并知道我的父母和我丈夫的父母平等地爱着他们。
I wrote the book over the course of two years, starting in 2018. The format is essentially like a letter I’m reading to my daughter about how I met her father, why Idecided to convert, and why she should be happy to be Jewish.
After I completed the first draft, I tweaked the rhymes with the help ofZach Sherwin.,一个了不起的喜剧演员和说唱歌手谁写的“JAP Battle” from “Crazy Ex-Girlfriend.” Then, I asked my friendBarbara Mendes, an incredibly talented fine artist, to make the illustrations for the book. My sister-in-law, the awesome artistJordana Lobell– who designs lovely ketubahs – drew borders for the pages. My brilliant friendRae Shagalov.of the “Holy Sparks” Jewish coloring book series laid the book out for me.
When the book was finished, I pitched it to all the Jewish publishers, but only one was interested. However, they wanted to change the illustrations. I would never do that. So I decided to self-publish instead. It was the best decision – with self-publishing, I could fulfill my vision for the book. I didn’t have to change a thing.
在“像你一样的犹太人，”我写了我第一次去找我的温暖Friday night dinnerat a local Chabad with Daniel. It was there that I ate delicious challah and drank kiddush wine and listened to a wonderful speech from the rabbi. I decided to convert after going a few more times and having Shabbat dinner with Daniel’s family.
My conversion process took five years. It took that long not just because conversion takes a while, but also because Daniel and I weren’t ready to get married. We got together when I was 21, and we both had some growing up to do. We took classes with different rabbis and slowly became observant, which meantcelebrating Shabbat和假期和吃犹太食物，以及其他东西。今天，我们称自己是敏锐的犹太人。
When I came up with the idea for the book, Daniel and I knew we wanted to have children but we weren’t ready yet. And then, during the process of writing it,I got pregnant. I didn’t know if I was having a boy or a girl, though I suspected it was a boy. I got scared – would I have to change the entire book? It was certainly going to be awkward reading it to a little boy when I intended it to be for a little girl.
值得庆幸的是，我一定要知道我有一天会有一个女孩，因为2019年10月我生下了我们的女儿，Tzofia chana。我读过她的书，虽然她大多只是盯着多彩的图片，并试图吃它们，我希望有一天她会理解和爱书proud to be犹太人。
“Jewish Just Like You” is especially important because unfortunately, sometimes there are stigmas around converting. For instance, lots of people have asked me, “So, you converted for your husband, right?” I tell them how no, actually, my husband didn’t want me to convert initially, and I brought him back to Judaism after he had been secular for a decade. One time, I dated a Jewish boy whose sister told him “Shiksas are just for fun.” A fewHolocaust survivorsquestioned why I would want to convert to a religion where the people have been persecuted since the beginning of time. I told them, “I can’t help it. Judaism is in my heart. I have to.”
我想象如果我们的家人庆祝非犹太假期或吃非犹太食品，那么我们的女儿家庭可能会令人困惑。在这本书中，我写道，“你会在双方看到祖父母，他们的强壮中间点会给你骄傲，”这张照片显示了我的父母庆祝情人节and Daniel’s celebrating Chanukah. My daughter will see that both sides of the family have different, but important, values and traditions. She should be proud to be a Jew but also have respect for other cultures at the same time.
希望，我的女儿和其他皈依者将从这本书中学到这本书的转换是多么精彩的转换，而那些出生的人会更好地了解我们。我们之间的皈依者比我们所知道的更多，我们有很多东西可以从他们那里学习。正如Torah所指责的那样，我们应该欢迎他们进入我们的社区with open arms just as if they were born Jewish.
That’s what I want to convey with the last line of my book. On the final page, I tell my daughter, “Mommy was not born a Jew, but now she’s Jewish just like you!”
You can purchase “Jewish Just Like You” on Amazonby clicking here.
Header Image via Kylie Ora Lobell, Illustration by Barbara Mendes
