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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Hi OP!

I can tell you about my husband's experience converting Conservative.

First of all, you are doing great belonging to a congregation - we were just married, still living near campus, going to Hillel for services, and they were not very organized. My husband asked them for conversion resources and they were honestly not great about getting back to him or being helpful. This was unfortunate because he started feeling like they were discouraging him and getting demotivated when I do actually think they were just busy and disorganized. So please don't be discouraged if you find yourself corresponding with someone who's bad at email! But at any rate, you have a Rabbi so that's probably the best place to start.

Anyway for us, we did some research and he actually ended up studying online with a Rabbi and also doing a yearlong independently paced online class. When he finished the class and the Rabbi felt he was ready, they figured out a time and place, the Rabbi organized a beit din with colleagues.

I don't think they would have "flunked" him once we already got that far but we were nervous anyway. All three Rabbis asked him questions, some personal, some halachic. Afterwards they went to the mikvah for blessings (I wasn't there for that) and signed some documents.

Since then, the only time it comes up is when joining a synagogue, as the forms tend to ask about conversion. And since his Hebrew name is so-and-so bar avraham v'sara, some people probably notice when he has an aliyah or whatnot, but no one has ever brought it up or anything.

I'm sure every Rabbi will be a little different but in my husband's case, he was expected to study Jewish history, holidays, kosher and shabbos laws, Maimonides, just a whole variety of topics. The Hebrew expectations of the class were very low but he chose to really work on it beyond that and I think that made a good impression with the Rabbi. There were prayers he had to learn but I don't remember which ones except that it was not a huge amount. Bottom line, it was nothing too difficult, just an expectation of putting in some time and effort.

My advice would be, before you talk to your Rabbi, it seems like you are nervous so just practice beforehand a little what you want to say, and how you will answer questions (why do you want to convert? being the big one). Also, you might want to ask him if he has any recommended reading on conversion and/or for people starting that process.

Good luck OP! I never asked my husband to convert, and it really surprised me when he told me it was what he wanted, but it's been really great. I learned a lot from his class too, and we've worked together to increase our observance in various ways since then. [/quote]

OP here - I appreciate your very thorough response!

Yes, I'll definitely need to rehearse what I'd want to say to our Rabbi 😆

Wishing you all the best![/quote]

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