see the original article at http://www.ou.org/jewish_action/05/2012/choosing-judaism-life-stories-remarkable-converts-2/

http://www.ou.org/jewish_action/05/2012/choosing-judaism-life-stories-remarkable-converts-2/

Cute story, but I have no idea why this guy didn’t have the guts to go home, explain to his family what he believed and stuck by it.  I know many, many people from Japan, and I know they are kind, caring and open minded.  I think he sold his family short.
It’s okay to be Buddist, Jewish, Roman Catholic, Protestant, Wiccan, whatever in the US and no one really bugs you about it.  No one here even cares if you believe in the fairies for deities.
I do hope this gentleman and his wife are able to reconnect with family.  I will pray for them to do that.  The karmic ties of family are very, very strong, and he and his wife should enjoy them.
His love of Hebrew is probably from a past life and that is why he is enamored of it.  That’s okay and perfectly fine.
I was confused by the Protestant ritual involving “bread and wine” similar to that practiced by Catholics.  Communion is the same for Roman Catholics, American Catholics, Protestants, etc. and just comes from a few phrases out of the New Testament.  Most people know that.  I worry that the writer of the article has not learned basic religious concepts before venturing out into more esoteric and archaic areas.
I also didn’t understand why he was confused about the “trinity”–it is a concept that predates Christianity and just consists of 3 things the faith believes in–Father, son, Holy Ghost, or Father, Mother and child where child symbolized earth or walking in earth, etc.  It has obvious parallels to the families we have on earth which are clearly blessed by God/dess.  Not a difficult concept.
With respect to Shabbat, I know a whole lot of people that, as I do, light candles every night, and say a blessing for family, peace and love and for the world.  Not uncommon.  In fact, my family jokes that I will not sit down to dinner unless and until the candles are lit.  And they know I say prayers all the time, non-stop.  Praying is very, very easy.
I am glad I live in the US where we are allowed to adopt religious practices of all types, from Jewish, to Buddist, to Hindu, to Christian and most educated people seem to know a lot about a wide variety of religions and spirituality.
Another practice I like of the Jewish religion is that the main holy day is on Friday, or Frieda day, which was an older German Goddess.  The Christian Religion has Sunday or Sun God day, which is the masculine equivalent.
But then the Jews blended the ancient Indian religions too.  Abraham is from “il Brahamin” or the old powerful Indian God Brahmin and Sarah was of the ancient Indian Goddess Sari.  I love that.  This proves recycling is very important.
If my comments are not published here, they will be on my http://www.oufeminist.org website.
Take care all and have a blessed day and I will pray for you all.
PS–oh, but watch the challah. Too high in carbs.  And there are newer versions of Kosher out there that watch the carbs, are free trade and push organic.  We currently dump 53 billion tons of chemicals on our crops every year and that’s gotta stop.  It’s clearly not Kosher.