A trend within the book, and one that Goldman himself discusses is that often the people in these chapters that convert are looking for greater religious understanding. This idea was very prevalent in the two conversion stories I ended up being most fascinated with. Those were the stories of Ruth Ben David and Jean-Marie Lustiger, the pair of converts from 20th century France. One of the biggest commonalities between these two was that they were seeking greater religious understanding and that they ended up with pretty high ambitions in the religions that they converted to. Both of these life stories begin with a younger individual who is not content with how they are being brought up religiously; they seek more. Ruth came from a Catholic family that was not really religious. Jean came from a Jewish family that was not really observant. This element of their conversion stories is important, and is important to many others. Jean and Ruth were not looking for escape or for a different life, they were looking for fulfillment. I think one of the main questions that gets raised when considering those that convert is why they do it.

While this book provided a glimpse into the lives and the conversion stories of seven unique individuals in and out of Judaism, it also left me wondering if I should of just read a book about one or two people. One of the key aspects of this book is Goldman’s artful pairing of conversion stories that go together in some way, have similarities, and create interesting juxtapositions. While this was definitely a useful tool and provides for the reader an interesting context and frame to read the book within it also left me struggling a little to draw connections across multiple conversion stories instead of just two. I found myself enthralled by the first two conversion stories I read, and dove deeper into Jean-Marie Lustiger via research into New York Times articles written about him. I struggled to jump around and read conversion stories as singular chapters and draw connections without being able to pair some of them together. In total I read five out of the seven conversion stories, along with the introduction and the chapter titled “who is a Jew?”

An aspect discussed in the first chapter of the book is that often for those that convert from Judaism to Catholicism individuals discover the true meaning of the Hebrew bible through reading the New Testament, and the New Testament provides for them something they were lacking. This seemed especially prevalent in the case of Jean-Marie Lustiger who unlocked his parent’s chest of books and read the Protestant bible in its entirety. This aspect of conversion is something I feel is discussed less. Lustiger made it a point multiple times throughout his life that his conversion to Catholicism and his time in the Catholic church provided for him a greater religious understanding and also a new way of being Jewish. Lustiger seems to have gained greater clarity. Lustiger’s story in particular highlights the complexities of conversion.

An interesting finding in my research about Lustiger that is not brought up within the chapter is how often he was asked if he thought he would be named the next Pope. Lustiger found this question to be crazy, and thought it not at all possible. However, Lustiger was named as a possible successor. Such a nomination I think in some minds is unimaginable, but it was in fact possible. Lustiger described the nomination to Archbishop of Paris alone as “all of a sudden the crucifix began to wear the yellow star.” I found this quote to be striking, but it also highlights the reality of Lustiger’s life. While Lustiger viewed himself as still being Jew that was not the case in the eyes of the Jewish community and Lustiger also received criticisms from the Catholic community. Despite Lustiger’s successes there was definitely tensions that remained.