Debbie B

 

About Debbie B

Debbie is an “ABCJBC” (American Born Chinese Jew by Choice) who formally converted after many years of being married to her Jewish husband and converting and raising two children (now teenagers) as Jews . She is an active member of two lay-led egalitarian minyanim. In her professional life, she is a university faculty member in engineering.

Doing Jewish: More Than Faith

D’var Torah for Parashat Mishpatim 24th of Sh’vat, 5771 Although this parashah is called “Mishpatim”, “laws” in Hebrew, and lists lots of mitzvot, I want to focus not on the laws, but on two verses found toward the end of the parashah which are very similar and which reminded me of a personal experience. Note that it is always considered significant when an idea is repeated in the Torah. The first is the second part of (Exodus) Chapter 24, verse 3: …וַיַּעַן … [Read more…]

JBC Roundup Through December 2010

Just after the last “JBC Roundup for Early November” was posted, Avi started the topic  Who Decides Who a Jew Is? in the Conversion Group with a link to a blog post of a member going through the conversion process. This topic generated an amazing total of 52 posts in the following week. Hanukkah was “early” this year and Considering Chanukkah got 9 posts. During December in the U.S. it is nearly impossible not to notice Christmas decorations, music, ads, and sales … [Read more…]

JBC Roundup for early November

By far the most active Group in the past few weeks has been the Conversion Group. Several Conversion forum topics have had lots of interesting comments.   The most active topic (25 posts) has been Conversion Project. Suggestions ranged from a collage to a photo essay to crafts like making a challah cover or crocheting head coverings. Identifying as Jewish discussed telling people you are converting or are Jewish, or hiding that same information. A beautiful poem on this theme was … [Read more…]

JBC Roundup For Early October

This is my first shot at writing a summary of the major recent activity in the Group Forums on this JBC website. I hope that this will allow readers who don’t check the Forums to find out what’s happening in some of the Groups and that it might encourage them to check out some current discussions on topics that they are interested in. The key words are “summary” and “major”. I only want to briefly describe the activity since readers can then go to the forum and read the discussions directly if … [Read more…]

It Started with a Seder

I really do not have the time to spare to write this post because I ought to be cleaning my house in preparation for Passover. But as I struggle to stop hyperventilating when thinking of how little time I have and how much I need to do to clean and convert my kitchen, I try to remember why Pesach is still my favorite holiday.  So I want to offer this heart-warming true story of how a seder invitation changed someone’s life. Aliza Hausman rightly points out that it is improper for someone … [Read more…]