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Bar Mltzvah at 28
For Alan, it’s part of learning
by Marilyn Ruby
Alan Pemberton became bar
mitrva on Dec. 10, Shabbat
Chanukah. And, he was about u
nervous at would be expected from
a guy in that poiition.
But Alan Pemberton’i bar
mitzva was unique, because he’s a
28-year-old convert who, until a
few years ago, didn’t know what a
Jew was.
As his lilting accent testifies,
Pemberton is from Australia—
specifically, the town of Ballarat,
an old gold mining center 60 miles
west of Melbourne. He said that
his family almost fit the term “anti-
Semitic" because they were so
ignorant of people who were
different. “It was not a bitter anti-
Semitism,” he said, “but more of a
categorization. They believed that
all Jews were smart-alecky, stingy,
rich and that they stuck together."
But, for some reason,
Pemberton was always interested
in the State of Israel, and he was
especially intrigued by Israel's
pioneering spirit. At age 2$, as a
“gung-ho socialist and an atheist,"
he left Australia to tour southeast
Asia and impulsively decided to go
to Israel.
He began reading about
Judaism while in Israel, mostly
because he was so impressed with
the people on the kibbutz where he
lived. “Their humanity was such an
impressive quality," he said. “Even
if they professed atheism, they
showed a great love of their fellow
man.” This was all the more true of
those who had escaped Nazi
Germany, he said.
He began talking to rabbis in
Tiberias about conversion, but
they kept putting him off by telling
him to read. He felt he was going
nowhere and, toward the end of his
13-month stay in Israel, he began
to flounder.
But things took a turn for the
better when he met Rosalie Katz
from Milwaukee at a seminar in
Jerusalem. The two hit it off and
from there, things happened
rapidly. Rosalie returned to the
United States, he followed and
they were wed in a civil ceremony.
Through it all, however, he
followed the rabbis'advice: he kept
reading.
“My transformation from
Alan Pemberton
atheist to monotheist was a slow
one,” Alan Pemberton said. “My
wife was a good sounding board
for my ideas, and we attended
Bible class once a week. I felt Td
passed the 50 percent mark, and I
told the Rabbi, ’Now I’m ready to
become a Jew. I believe, and I want
to observe the miizvol.' "
Pemberton’s orthodox con
version was in September of 1976
and he and his wife soon were
remarried in a Jewish ceremony.
They now keep a kosher home and
observe the Sabbath. Pemberton
walks to Temple every day, he
wears a yarmulkeh and tzilzis. and
he lays t/illin every morning. He
calls these things his “insurance
policies" because they constantly
remind him of his Jewish identity.
He sometimes finds it hard to be
an observant Jew here, he said, but
he realized when he converted that
he could not convert without
observing the laws and customs.
“A convert in any religion carries a
great responsiblity," he said.
Perhaps the part of Judaism that
Pemberton enjoys the most is the
Sabbath. He agrees with the rabbi
who once said “It’s not the Jews
who keep the Sabbath, but the
Sabbath that keeps the Jews."
I never was a great church-goer
as a gentile, but if I don't go to
Temple how, my Shabbat is not
quite complete.
Pemberton said one of the
hardest things about conversion
was finding his own level of
observance. “I would see a rabbi
without his head covered, and I
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was just flabbergasted," he said.
“But now I’m more tolerant, and I
find nothing wrong with the
Reform Jew or the Hasidic Jew.
The same feelings are there in all
Jews."
Among the many tasks he has
set for himself is to learn to chant
the Haftorah so that he can read
on the anniversary of his father’s
death, and to stop his once prolific
habit of swearing.
Alan and his wife have begun
plans to make ahyah to Israel,
where they hope to live on a
religious kibbutz. But this time,
when he goes back to Israel, he will
go as a different person.
“Sometimes when I look in the
mirror, I have a slight identity
crisis,” he said. “I’ve gone from one
end of the world to another; I went
from being single to being married;
and I’ve gone from a gentile to a
Jew.”
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