Journeys of the Soul

Julie Kaminsky’s journey to becoming observant was launched in one of the most improbable locations – in the country of Guinea in West Africa. There, a group of religious Muslims inspired Julie to discover her own religion.

Julie grew up in a Conservative Jewish home. After college she wanted to find a unique experience that would allow her to help mankind in a foreign country, so she joined the Peace Corps.

She was supposed to be assigned to a program in Eastern Europe, but one month before graduation she received a phone call telling her that the assignment had fallen through. Would she instead consider going to Guinea? Julie’s fluency in French would serve her well in Guinea, and she was offered the opportunity to teach English in a high school there. She agreed and ten days after graduation she left for Africa. Among the items she took with her was an ArtScroll Siddur, which she had received from her brother, who himself had become a little more observant in college.

Julie’s small village in Guinea was populated with devout Muslims. Julie was very open about her religion and wore a Jewish star around her neck. The town’s residents treated her well, and actually looked up to her because they knew that many of their religious beliefs originated in Judaism.

“They thought I was amazing, Judaism – that’s the basis of their religion, Everything comes from our religion. All they wanted to do was show off their knowledge - they told me, ‘we know about Abraham and Moses.’ They loved it when they first saw my ArtScroll siddur – they would see the Hebrew and compare it to their knowledge of Arabic,” Julie said.

The townspeople peppered Julie with many questions about Judaism and wanted to know how it compared to Islam. For example they recited blessings after meals and prayed five times per day, ritually washing their hands, legs and back each time. They wanted to know how Julie prayed, but because she did not do it regularly she was at a loss to answer.

“There were all these parallels to stuff that I knew. It was so much part of their life that I felt left out since Judaism wasn’t so much part to my life,” Julie explained. “They related to me by the fact that I had a religion – they asked me, ‘When do you pray? What do you say?’ but I had trouble answering their questions.”

Within the first week Julie burned through all 10 romance novels that she had brought with her. She then dove into her ArtScroll siddur, pouring over each page and every footnote to try to find answers to the questions she was receiving. The ideas she was reading began to penetrate her soul as well. She used her ample free time for introspection on her religious upbringing compared to the practices she was seeing and reading about in her siddur.

Julie also learned more about Shabbat from her ArtScroll siddur. She didn’t know very much about it, but tried to try what she knew, which proved to be very easy as there was no electricity and few distractions in Africa. Julie began lighting Shabbat candles, though the candles melted almost as soon as they were lit.

Julie’s mother had sent her a Jewish calendar to help her keep track of the holidays. Julie had a friend also serving in Guinea for the Peace Corps. Her friend had become religious in college and though they lived 100 miles apart (a six day’s journey!), the two women tried to get together for most of the holidays. Julie’s friend had built an eruv around her house to connect it to her outhouse. The two women even made makeshift Pesach Seders together with whatever items they could scrounge up. Watching her friend trying to observe Shabbas and the holidays in Africa gave Julie the strength to try to do the same.

After her year and a half assignment ended, Julie packed up her few belongings and her newfound religious observance and moved back to America. She had left an impression on the people of the village, but their impact on her was far greater.

“Africa was the beginning, a start, an opening, a chance to look at something in a different way. I realized I could look at something unbiased and not judge people. It had the same effect on my Judaism. I could view it with an open mind, not how I was fed it in Hebrew school. I knew there was value in this for me and my life.”

Living in Africa and seeing how people helped each other despite their abject poverty demonstrated to her the significance of community. Julie moved to Atlanta, Georgia and immediately searched for a community to join. A friend told her about a class given by a local Jewish educational organization, the Atlanta Scholars Kollel. Through the class she found her way to the Orthodox community of Atlanta centered around Congregation Beth Jacob.

The first time Julie walked into the local Orthodox community she was intimidated, but again her experiences in Africa helped ease her in. She told herself to imagine being in Africa again and to try to find common ground with the people she was meeting. In only a short time she felt at home as everyone wished her “Good Shabbas!” and welcomed her, embracing her in ways very much like she had felt in Guinea.

Julie eventually wed and is raising her family in Atlanta. While the community has many beautiful stories of other dramatic returns to Judaism, Julie had one of the longest journeys, going the furthest both physically and spiritually to find her way back.

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Michael Gros writes from Ramat Beit Shemesh, Israel. The Teshuva Journey column chronicles uplifting teshuva journeys and inspiring kiruv tales. Send comments to michaelgros@gmail.com

Published in The Jewish Press in March 2010