She covers many topics including a brief introduction to Judaism, dealing with family members who may or may not support one’s conversion, choosing a sponsoring Rabbi, selecting a Hebrew name and living a Jewish life. The book includes her own personal conversion story and contains many accounts of the process of conversion by Jews-by-choice, or ger.

The book is practical in many ways, but it also it deeply moving. One of my favorite sections of Diamant’s work is the chapter on choosing a Hebrew name. She discusses the power of a name and how that power is intensified when one chooses the name as an adult in the process of becoming a Jew. The author writes, “Choosing a Hebrew name is a way of creating and naming your new Jewish self. It is a way to give voice to who you really are and who you hope to become.” This passage speaks to me particularly around my having endured many life experiences that I did not choose and would not wish upon anyone. The idea of choosing a new name, that represents who I feel I truly am, gives me great joy and I believe is so important for anyone reinventing herself, whether to a new religion or to any life phase.

Choosing a Jewish Life is also full of the rudimentaries of many Jewish rituals. From circumcision to the bet din (essentially a religious court who assesses one’s readiness to become a Jew) to the mikvah (a ritual, cleansing bath converts to Judaism immerse themselves into), Diamant leads us through the ancient and meaningful rituals converts to Judaism undergo. The chapter discussing the mikvah seems to centralize all the other rituals a convert participates in on her/his journey to becoming a Jew. Diamant quotes from Yevamot 47B, “As soon as the convert immerses and emerges, he is a Jew in every respect.” What joy in this miraculous ritual! The author speaks of the healing and cleansing power of water, which, according to the Talmud, sources back to the river that emerged from Eden. While most of the rest of the preparations for becoming a Jew are intellectual pursuits, the mikvah is a wholly physical act. Even still, most Jews-by-choice report that this act of being submersed in water has a powerful and lasting impact on their identities as Jews. Diamant comments, “Floating in the mikvah—every limb, every pore, every strand of hair covered by waters as warm as those of your mother’s womb—you are held in a primal embrace and emerge, in a way, reborn.”

The book also includes sections on converting children to Judaism, Jewish marriage rituals, making the Torah your own and what one can expect in her first year as a Jew. It truly is a remarkable commentary by a brilliant writer on both the path to becoming a Jew and the life one can expect to live after she/he is converted to the family of Judaism. Deeply spiritual, mystical and enthralling, Choosing a Jewish Life invites the reader to re-consider the history of the Jewish people, to look at herself in profound ways and to contemplate the possibilities and unspeakable meanings living a life with g-d as center can have. From a prayer by Edmund Flegg, “Why I Am a Jew”, that Diamant includes in her book, I leave you with the following inspiring thought: “I am a Jew because at every time despair cries out, the Jew hopes.” Shalom.