As I stood at the top of the steps of the pool of warm water, I could feel my feet tingle with anticipation. The feeling slowly enveloped my body, moving steadily up my legs, to my core, my heart and my mind. The feeling did not agitate or annoy, it was like a blanket of calmness and serenity. I stood at the top of the steps looking down into the mikvah. I took a breath and descended slowly until I stood fully in the water.

As interested as I was in Judaism, I had assumed that becoming part of the Jewish community was not an option for me. For a long time, I thought that one could only be part of the Jewish community through Jewish ancestry or marriage to a Jewish partner. 

Judaism is a religion, but it is also a practice. I choose to practice my Judaism by expressing my love for the Jewish people and my becoming one of them. I practice by immersing myself in Jewish wisdom and participating in the conversation of Jewish philosophy.

This campaign aims to help dismantle systemic racism by educating, inspiring, and empowering individuals and communities to look inwardly to make communal change and outwardly to win legislative change.

Earlier this month, the Senate Judiciary Committee held the first-ever Senate hearing on the Equality Act, a landmark bill that would add nondiscrimination protections for sexual orientation and gender identity to federal civil rights law.

The Jewish people have been welcoming people in for thousands of years, and this ruling takes a tremendous step forward in proving that Israel is the Jewish State for all Jews.

We know that religious freedom is not a lesson from ancient stories, but an ongoing quest even today. While many of us are fighting antisemitism in our home countries, we are also in solidarity with the Rohingya people, who have been persecuted for decades.

Jewish Disability Advocacy Month is an opportunity to participate in the work to achieve a more just world. On February 22, nonprofit and congressional leaders in the field of disability policy will discuss the state of disability rights policy.