My first (official?) translation

An article about Jewish couples of which both members are converts:

http://yiddish.forward.com/node/1045

And my translation:

When Both Husband and Wife Are Converts

By Rukhl Schaechter, NY –

Charlie Hall and Paula Sinclair

When someone decides that he wants to convert to Judaism in an Orthodox manner, he must first demonstrate that he has no concealed intentions – for example, that his reason for conversion is that he is in love with a Jewish girl. In fact, Orthodox rabbis make an effort to talk potential converts out of their intentions: the potential converts are advised to find their own way to God through keeping the seven Noahide laws (the heavenly decrees that all humankind must observe) and lead their lives as righteous people.

Rabbi Meir Fond, the founder of the “Flatbush Minyan” in Brooklyn, NY, and one who teaches people in the process of conversion, explained that he indeed only accepts a small number of students into his classes. “Because you can never know beforehand who the best candidates will be, I choose those who display a firm devotion, attend synagogue on Shabbos and on Yom-Tov, and live a religious lifestyle. I don’t expect this to happen overnight. Because of that, it can sometimes take months, or even years.”

Most converts marry born Jews, and therefore “buy into” a Jewish family with new Jewish roots. But what about a convert that marries another convert? Is it harder, having no protective net of a family? Is their life any different from a couple where only one is a convert?

Paula Sinclair, a doctor who is an Orthodox Jewish convert from the Bronx, feels that it is to her advantage that she married another convert. Her husband, Charlie Hall, is a biostatistician in Yeshiva University. “We have similar backgrounds,” she told The Forverts. “We both celebrated Christmas as children. We are very devoted to leading a religious Jewish life, since we don’t do it just because ‘that’s how grandma did it.’ On the contrary, had Charlie been an FFB (frum from birth), it would be harder for me because our relationship would not be even. He, and not I, would have a whole Jewish family with traditions. I would feel as though I have to leave it up to him to decide how we will lead our lives. The way it is now, we’re level, and I never have to hide my non-Jewish past.”

Paula grew up in California. Her parents were descendants of Protestants, but considered themselves atheists. She herself experimented with Eastern religions, such as Zen, “but when they told me to bow down to my pillow, I realized it wasn’t for me.”

In college, she tried Christianity, “but the idea that Jesus died for my sins seemed so childish to me, because I feel that one has to be held responsible for one’s own sins.” Through a friend who was a convert, her interest in Judaism blossomed, and in 2001 she completed the conversion.

Charlie also has a Protestant background. As a child, he studied in a Presbyterian Sunday school, but when he grew older, he was disappointed with the liberal atmosphere in the Protestant churches. “It bothered me that they made theological decisions based on the majority. Ignorant worshipers shouldn’t make such decisions.”

Charlie survived several personal crises in his personal life. He married twice – and both times got divorced. Depressed, he once accompanied a friend to a prayer session of the Jewish Renewal movement in Hartford, Connecticut, where he received a warm welcome. He began to develop an interest in the Jewish religion, and the idea of one God was very attractive to him. “They say that Christianity is monotheistic, but I’m not so sure. Believing in a God, a Son, and a Holy Ghost sounds to me more like three gods, not one. The more I thought about it, the more I realized I must become a Jew.”

When he got a job at Yeshiva University, he met many Orthodox Jews, which immediately captured his interest. He started learning with a rabbi and converted in 2003. He met Paula through the matchmaking website “Frumster,” and immediately felt a connection, he said. “23 days later, we got engaged, and three months after that, we got married.”
Charlie maintains that it’s just a coincidence that they are both converts. “I could just have easily married a born religious Jewish girl,” he remarked. “But I couldn’t be with a ba’al teshuva (penitent), because they often aren’t sure where to go. One day they want to be Hasidic, the next day – Carlebach, and the next – Modern Orthodox. Converts are more similar to born Jews because both understand that one needs a rabbi as a guide, and this creates a more stable life.”

Paula and Charlie converted separately, before they met. But sometimes, a non-Jewish couple decides to convert together. For Denis and Isabelle Supersac, a couple in France that decided to convert, the process was so long and bitter, it’s nearly a miracle that they held out. You would think that a married couple would have less trouble going to a rabbi, because it’s clear that they aren’t converting to marry a Jew. But not this time – their process dragged on for eleven years.

One possibility is that the rabbis in France, most of them Sephardic Jews, are stricter about conversion than in America. You could also deduce that their being a couple caused more suspicion, and even discrimination, than if a potential convert were to come with a Jewish girl.

Denis and Isabelle Supersac and four of their five children

Denis, a translator, hails from a Protestant family, and Isabelle was a secular Catholic language instructor when they engaged in a long discussion about religion, specifically Judaism. “That discussion was a landmark in my spiritual journey,” remarked Denis. “I had long wrestled with the question of why there are two versions of Christianity – Protestantism and Catholicism – if they both believe in Jesus. It just didn’t make any sense.” Isabelle had also begun to dabble in various religions, and like Denis, became very interested in the Jewish faith.

“But when we wanted to learn more, we could only take classes with a liberal non-Orthodox rabbi, because the Orthodox rabbis wouldn’t let us in,” said Denis. He started learning Hebrew, Chumash, and Torah law on his own. By then, they already had one child, and lived in Nantes, in western France, where their neighbors, Polish Jews, warmly accepted them. But when the neighbors wanted to bring them along to synagogue, the rabbi would not let them in.

“At about that time, we began to observe Judaism,” tells Denis. “We bought kosher meat in Paris and drove five hours with full suitcases to bring it home.” When their second child, David, was born in 1996, he had to be circumcised in the hospital, because the mother was not yet Jewish.

After that, the family blossomed, and in 2004, when they already had five children, Rabbi Moshe Chen, the Chabad rabbi in Toulouse, finally agreed to learn with them privately, and they signed up for the general conversion class. “The teacher was a twenty-year-old girl – I already knew more than she did,” recalls Denis. Then, the beis-din gave them a written exam of 280 questions and required them to write a lengthy article; Denis’ totaled 80 pages. But when the couple was asked whether they could take the oral part of the test (the last stage of learning), they answered: “Not yet.”

“We were furious,” said Isabelle. “We already had a visa to travel to America at that point, and we absolutely couldn’t wait any longer.” Disappointed, they made an appointment with the beis-din of Paris – a step which the rabbis in Toulouse did not approve of. The beis-din of Paris posed several questions to Denis (how, for example, do you make havdala, when Shabbos comes right before Yom-Tov?) and in 2005, the rabbis agreed that the family was ready for the mikvah. They first ruled, however, that the couple had to separate for three months.

Denis and Isabelle protested that they could not wait three months, because they had to move to America, and the rabbis changed it to one month. Finally, in June 2005, all seven members of the Supersac family immersed themselves in the mikvah, and immediately after that, Denis and Isabelle were married under a chuppah. “I stood under that chuppah with wet hair,” recalls Isabelle.

The Forverts unsuccessfully tried to reach the rabbis in Toulouse.

Today, Denis and Isabelle very happily reside in their new Modern Orthodox home in Teaneck, New Jersey, with their children David, 11; Miriam, 10; Eli, 8; and Rebecca, 6. When asked whether their life as a couple is different from that of a convert and a Jew, Denis answered: “Of course. Because we are not born Jews, we did not have to culturally orient ourselves. But that’s why we like to go together to conferences on Judaism, to analyze linguistic nuances in the Chumash, and to read Pirkei Avos.”

“We still don’t understand why it took 11 years for us to convert, just because we couldn’t find a rabbi willing to help us,” sighed Denis. “Our children kept asking us: ‘Are we Jews yet?’ It shouldn’t be like that.”