Are you a Jew? The answer might be more complicated than you think. Despite being teased at her school in Michigan for being Jewish, having a Bat Mitzvah, and making Aliyah to her ancestral homeland, Chaya had to convert to Judaism in order to marry her fiancé here in Israel. TLV1’s Laragh Widdess sits down with her to discuss the gory details of her conversion experience, including being spied on, being adopted by a Jewish family (not her own), and having to answer questions about her love of Jesus.

Find out why over a million Israelis who moved here as Jews are not Jewish enough to marry in Israel, why the conversion process is so painful, and what’s being done to change it. As usual, it all comes down to the Chief Rabbinate’s monopoly over the interpretation of Jewish law.

“Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God.”
– Ruth 1:16 (KJV)

Music:
Michael Levy – King David’s Lyre; Echoes of Ancient Israel
Matityahu Shelem – Shibolet Ba’Sadeh
Madonna – Borderline
Billie Holiday – My Yiddishe Momme
Alexandre Desplat – The Grand Budapest Hotel Original Soundtrack #03 & #08
Johnny Cash – Personal Jesus
Frank Sinatra – The Best Is Yet To Come
Sam Cooke – A Change Is Gonna Come

Written and produced by Laragh Widdess