Wayland, MA – ‘It comed off,” 4-year-old Meg Dame tells her grandmother in the hall of Meg’s preschool in Wayland, her toddler-speak explaining that her headband has dislodged. Carolyn Hastings helps readjust the band for the light-haired child of her late daughter, Caroline.
Subscribe to our Daily Roundup Email
Meg was just a year old when Caroline died and so was robbed of the gift of remembering the woman who gave birth to her. She will not know what it is to be cooed to sleep with her mother’s song or the delight of mother pursuing child across the playground.
Caroline desperately wanted to watch Meg grow, says her widower, Jeff Dame of Holliston, who shared tears with his wife when they realized she probably would not survive the leukemia she had battled for years.
Though she is gone, one thread still binds child and mother. Before she died, Caroline had abandoned her family’s Christianity for Judaism, one of the fraction of Americans who have converted to the faith of Abraham, according to the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life. And it had been her wish to raise Meg Jewish.
Honoring that wish has become the mission not only of Meg’s father, who raises her with help from his family and girlfriend, but especially of Hastings.
Caroline made it clear that she wanted Meg to be raised Jewish,” Malka Esther, a Jewish friend of Caroline’s, says by e-mail from her New Jersey home. Having helped the family with some of its questions about Judaism, she adds, “I was with her the day of her conversion [in 2001], and it clearly meant the world to her to convert.
Caroline told her family that after studying Judaism, she felt as if she had always been Jewish.
I want Meg to have a faith and a realization of God’s love. The way that the identification is fostered with Judaism is through a lot of different customs,” which are “a way of making every moment a reminder of your relationship with God.
“I’m not here just so Meg can learn to sing Jewish songs and eat challah,” Hastings adds, alluding to the braided bread. “It’s a really beautiful religion. I just stand in awe sometimes. . . . I feel like it’s a gift that I’ve been given somehow.”
Beautiful story. Thank you.
Although the article states:
(“I was with her the day of her conversion [in 2001], and it clearly meant the world to her to convert ) Obviously this woman believed she was a Jew after her “conversion” which was obviously not k’halacha.
Bedatz issued a letter in November 2007 forbidding teaching Torah to non Jewish children in order to proselytise them to Judaism.
Renee, you crack me up. what makes you say the conversion wasn’t done k’halacha? Unless u have some more info the mother became jewish (in 2001 when she converted). Her daughter is jewish because her mother was jewish when she was born. That being the case, who cares what bedatz said since that doesn’t apply here.
Please post comments responsibly as all comments are moderated.The child cannot be converted until she is Bas Mitzva and wants to convert properly k’halacha. It’s not as if she was adopted into a Jewish family and raised as Jewish. Even then, she would still not be considered Jewish until Bas Mitzva when she would have the option of converting or remaining a non Jew.
if the mother was converted while the child was alive then the child would have the option and would need to choose to convert. but the mother was converted before the child was born, i.e. she was born to a halachikly jewish mother. Why doesnt that make her jewish? are you going to say that a convert isnt really jewish and so offspring of a convert for generations will always have to convert to be considered jewish?
My understanding is that the child IS Jewish and the mother was trying to ensure that her Christian family would respect this and not try to convert her to Christianity but raise her as the Jew that she is!
On second thoughts, after reading the extended article in the Boston Globe it appears a bit weird unless she divorced her husband before converting she reamined married to a non Jew, does that invalidate her conversion? In that case the kid is NOT Jewish and I can no longer assume anything!
Here’s the deal: Based on the amount of missing facts, the mother conversion is in doubt. The kid
will have to undergo a geirus due to this doubt.
There is no way that a kid raised in a Christian home can sincerely convert until she reaces an age
of 1) independance 2)worldliness and maturity. (The age of Bas/Bat Mitzva (12)won’t cut it.) The
best thing for the eternal good of this child would be to convert (sincerely misafek) but only after she reaches her twenties. If she does not convert, she’s still not a posha_as/at- since even if her mother’s geirus was valid and Meg is Jewish she’s a Tinok shenishba for ever, having been raised among non-Jews all her life. She can’t be faulted for not accepting the need to be miga_yer misafek for even if Meg is Jewish-again she is a Tinok Shenishba. The only difference in converting or not as far her culpability is that for a lifetime of transgressing out of ignorance if she does not convert misafek she is obligated to bring a single Korban Chatas (al tnai. Now I don’t know how she does that cause if she’s not a Jewess, a goy/goya can only bring a Korbon Olah and the Korban must be a Shlamim if it’s not to be a Chatas.)As far as teaching Torah to non Jewish children in order to proselytise them there should be no problem here since there is a need to be miga_yer misafek. I would say that teaching her Torah as a child can only be done with the expressed permission of her family however. (And it would effectively mean cutting her off from her family so that’s out.) Bottom line: In no case will her geirus be valid before she’s a total adult and she decides. THERE IS NO GER KATAN MATBILIN AL DAAS BESDIN here. THERE IS
NO HIGDULU YICHOLIN LIMCHOS. iT DOES NOT APPLY here.