ESYNAGOGUE

1.I want to convey a personal note to thank you for my conversion to Judaism. I have now been been accepted as a full member of the Jewish Community of Malta and I have been called to the Torah several times now. I am keeping Shabbat from Erev Shabbat till Havdallah with the help of the local Chief Rabbi who invites me to his house after synagogue services. Baruch Hashem, kosher food is now being imported in Malta by a Maltese food retailer as a lot of Israelis are visiting the island on chartered flights given the strained relations between Israel and Turkey.
Well, I am involved also in the preparations for the Pesach seder which will be celebrated in grand style in one of our top hotels, where we hope that some Maltese dignataries will also attend.So my life in Judaism is steadily progressing. My next step is learning Hebrew
Dear Rabbi ..... whilst I sincerely wish you all the best ..... please take care and stay in touch.Thanks. Best regards from Malta,

2. You asked me to inform you when synagogue would recognize my

Ghiur. I inform you that the liberal synagogue in Milan recognizes it.

3. Thank you! I have been reading and listening to the UTube courses non stop since I spoke with you on the phone. This is a wonderful set of classes and so informative. This is wonderful. Thank you again.

Colleen

The course is great! We would recommend it to anyone seeking a path to conversion.The amount of information is astounding. You put so much work into the course. We thank you tremendously. David and Cynthia

There are also no words to properly convey the depth of my appreciation to you, yet mere words will have to suffice. Thank you for this gift, for which I can never truly repay you. I will instead repay it by living, loving, and learning Jewishly more each day.

ROB Feb 7 2009

Rabbi,

Thank you so much! I can hardly express my excitement. Last night I
could not sleep. I was up reading about how the messiah is to come from
the line of King David and trying to make sure I remembered dates. I was
so nervous. The kids were nervous too. We did not need to be, but I
think it was natural to be so. Meeting you and the other Rabbi's was a
gift. All three of you are wonderful men. We have so much yet to learn,
but we have gotten a great start with your online course.

I just could not possibly articulate my thanks in words. Just know that
in my heart this feels right to me. I feel that I am home in Judaism.
You and your course have helped me find my way home. Rabbi Jonathan thank you so much for your time and efforts. I know that you
are busy people. I just want you to know that your work is
wonderful and a gift to anyone exploring this path.

Testimonials

Boker Tov dear Rabbi. I wanted to say that I made it safely back to Miami. I wanted to thank you and all of you for your welcome. I was truly overwhelmed by the genuine kindness, tenderness, attention, the sincerity you all give. I never felt so welcomed anywhere. A lot of things are coming to me via ripple effects : the strongest one is like quietness and a calm joy. I am now looking for a community as close as possible to my house so I can start participating and start growing. Living jewishly by oneself does not amount too much !!!. This past Wednesday was just the first step Thank you so much for everything. Ahava
Shalom

Video impact and there is hope...

Dear Rabbi:

" I wanted to write to thank you for taking the time to develop and place online the series of videos covering the Jewish tradition, prayer and custom. I want to let you know that your videos I believe are very useful and I find it truly inspiring that -- when you made the videos --you had no idea that they would touch me or any other person, per se, yet you took the time to develop the series and had the foresight to see that people, myself included, would benefit from the series. Thank you.

By way of background, I grew up outside of Boston in a Jewish household. I never, ever like Hebrew school and did just about everything I could to avoid or skip it. I was Bar Mitzvahed, then almost immediately -- to put it mildly -- religion fell out of favor with me. (It probably fell out of favor long before). Today is my 25th birthday. About six months ago when I was living in Boston, I called my cousin and said "Would you and your wife like to do Shabbat this weekend?" He says back "What do you mean by that?" ... I say, "I mean, I provide the Chullah, you provide the wine." ... About five minutes later he calls me back and says "Pam wants to know if you want to do the candles?" ... I say "It wouldn't be shabbat without them." ... Five minutes later he calls me back and says "Pam wants to know if you are serious." Every week after that, our Shabbat dinner stated to include more and more of the "grandchildren" (my cousins) and what was amazing is that there was no adult standing there telling us we had to do it. Now that I moved to Texas, I am getting involved in the local Temple, and it's really nice to have your refreshers to study and get up to speed. Thanks again and please keep posting new videos. With kind regards,

Email-small world story

What a small world we live in. I was one of three on the Beit Din of a wonderful young lady this afternoon. Her name is Val.
The Rabbi at the Reform Temple here tries to have someone that has converted to Judaism on the panel. This time I was fortunately asked. Through the course of questions, Val and I discovered that weboth know your through your videos! The others on the panel were at a loss to our excitement. We both had big smiles on our faces and it really broke the ice.

Thanks to Rabbi Jonathan Ginsburg for all the great videos which taught us so much on youtube
ValWe had a chance to talk after the Beit Din, before her Mikvah, about all the things we learned from you. We both lived rather far awayfrom a Synagogue and your were our lifeline to Judaism. I hope you understand the scope of the good work that you do. I personally can't thank you enough for what you have done for me.Today's experience taught me that I am not alone in feeling this way. Scott

I just wanted to let you know that if I hadn't told you before that I appreciate all the things that you have done for in my path to Judaism. I wouldn't be where I am at today without your help. I also wanted to tell you that because of that help I will be going to Israel next fall to study at X yeshiva. They accepted my application and I will be spending at least a year there.

Thank you Rabbi!

Mark

Dear Rabbi

I truly appreciate your words very much. The session are very well done and presented and Rabbi J. has become part of my life, a friend and teacher as I'm constantly watching his outstanding videos about all the different topics. In fact I'm planning to go this year to the States to your congregation to get the chance to meet you both personally.

Regards, Roberto

This is a wonderful approach to conversion and a great deal financially.

Thank you. Henry

While searching online I came across your site. I visited
several others, but frankly yours is the most detailed, well-thought,
and professional of the lot.
Rob

I just saw your YouTube videos and they caught my eye. They are quite honestly, some of the best I've seen on there! I'm a member of the video team, the leading "how-to" and expert online video site, (Maybe you caught our recent write-up in Time Magazine: just made their annual list of the 50 Best Websites of 2008!) and thought that you might be a perfect fit four our site. Our mission here at Howcast is to show people how to do practically anything with fun, informative how-to videos they'll actually want to watch -like yours! Your videos are so amazing, and I would love if we could include them on our site -

"I think it is your great communication ability which draws me to you as a Rabbi. Each and every message is well thought out and superbly communicated. I thank you very much for the enlightenment I receive from you. I realize that I am but another non-Jewish person working on my conversion to Judaism, so my opinion is somewhat less educated than some others, but I receive great pleasure from listening to you via ipod. Please let me encourage you as well as thank you for your efforts."

Web Hosting by Yahoo!

rabbi@esynagogue.org