It all began with me studying the Jewish culture, history, and such, and being introduced to the Jewish concept of God. In the past I grew up Christian until I was ten years old and left Christianity, not believing in a big invisible, grey-bearded man in the sky judging me and threatening to love him or suffer eternally. It started with the Jewish concept of God resonating deeply with me and exploring further learning about the religion. The more I read, the more I fell in love with all things Judaism and the Jewish people!

I’ve talked about it before, but I started out exploring Conservative Judaism under Rabbi David of Beth Am Israel (a great guy, a real mensch) and attending a few Shabbat services and talking one on one with him. The songs brought tears to my eyes, I felt in the core of my being a pull to the language I didn’t even understand (Hebrew). While Judaism resonated strongly with me, Conservative Judaism wasn’t the path for me, and my wife and I explored Reform Judaism.

We attended several Shabbat services with Congregation Rodeph Shalom and instantly fell in love and explored Reform Judaism deeper and deeper. We soon found that RS was our spiritual home and became official members and started the conversion process with an absolutely incredible mensch Rabbi Eli whom we love dearly. We love Rabbi Maderer and Cantor Hyman as well, but something about Rabbi Eli I couldn’t put my finger on immediately drew me to him, so we fully began our journey with him.  

Now, how did we know Reform Judaism was for us, fully and completely?

Well, I could not imagine life without it, upon deciding to convert, my old altar and imagery from the occult I tore down, not out of disrespect for the occult, but out of love of Hashem and Judaism. I ceased teaching others in the occult and writing books on the subject… mind you, I brought Luciferianism to the public, was a public figure, author, and gave lectures on the occult to millions of people at a time (that’s no exaggeration). I was the high priest of the Church of Lucifer since I was sixteen years old, and have long since passed down leadership to another person and left.

There isn’t an iota of doubt in my mind that Judaism is for me, Hashem led me to it and I still fill with tears during services to this day. No matter how bad a week might be, the moment I’m in Shabbat service, everything melts away, I become filled with joy and the week means nothing to me anymore. Judaism is so welcoming and the people are beautiful, kind, and giving of themselves, as are several of the mitzvah Jews practice daily. Judaism has enhanced my life, it’s made me into an even better person than before it and leads me to be a better version of myself daily. 

So, that’s it in a nutshell, I couldn’t begin to fathom life not as a Jew, or practicing Judaism… it’s not a life that I’d want to have!