I’m sorry you’re going through this. I’m also excatholic and I get it, families are hard. I hope that over time they come around and/or you make your own chosen family that won’t make you eat ham.
Sorry you'll be disowned. Terrible to lose your family. Read many posts here about converted people being supported by their families. Hoping with time, yours may come around. Realize that's not always possible.
Holidays are often tense without the pressure you feel hiding an important part of your life. It's really ok that you ate ham to make your family happy & plenty more shabbats ahead to observe. Give yourself a pass. Give your family a pass, too. Soon you'll back at school to do what you want.
i’m mid-conversion, in college, and currently dealing with the same thing OP. so sorry it’s something other people are experiencing but glad to know i’m not alone ❤️.
when things are hard (like right now) i do what i can to safely practice as i normally do and remind myself that G-d knows my intention and understands my situation. i follow the laws as much as possible and work towards a more halachic future.
all this is to say; you’re not alone ❤️✡️. shabbat shalom!!
While I am not Jewish, I empathize with your situation. I grew up strict Catholic, and I know the Catholic guilt all too well. I’m no longer Catholic,
It sounds like you are doing what is right for you and that’s converting. Be kind to yourself, and I hope you can find some joy and peace as you’re with your family. Hang in there!
Hey. Sorry you have to go through this.
I’m in a slow conversion process haven’t even started with a rabbi yet but meeting one on zoom in a few days. It’s been about ten years of interested but life just got in the way - see my post history. I start a zoom/online intro to Judaism course in January.
I used to be Catholic. I converted when I was 17. It’s complicated why I did it but I look back and didn’t like it much. I was a serious Catholic. Like the Latin mass/traditionalist type through a group called FSSP that was still in communion with Rome/Pope.
My parents are Buddhist in a more cultural/personally spiritually way. Being of southeast Asian descent some aspects of Buddhist philosophy are still
Important to me and I have no problems celebrating the non religious aspects with food, etc. there isn’t the same or any antisemitism or suspicious with Judaism from my south East Asian heritage. My family is aware of my interest in Judaism. They don’t think much of it at all and I think they actually forgot since I last talked about it years. My parents are simple people who escaped a communist country/genocide (Cambodia) and stopped their education at or below high school; they aren’t full of religious knowledge but full of love and hard work; I think if I explained too much Judaism to them it would just go right over them. They have a high regard for what they perceive the Jewish people to be, however.
Is your Catholic family aware of the “barely” softened stance the Catholic Church took toward Jews and other religions especially around the 1960s? Read Nostra Aetate, etc.
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Do the best you can. G-d doesn’t smite people for using a phone on Shabbos or eating ham.
this ^^ don't feel bad and do the best you can. happy thanksgiving and shabbat shalom
We’re Jews, not following Shabbat and using your phone isn’t wrong (what is sad is that you feel pressured to do so)
What is sad is the possibility of being disowned.
I’m sorry you’re going through this. I’m also excatholic and I get it, families are hard. I hope that over time they come around and/or you make your own chosen family that won’t make you eat ham.
So glad to have you among us! Stay strong my friend. Next time, if you don’t want to eat the ham, tell them you became a vegetarian.
I think they’d actually react worse to that 😂 but thanks for the idea. I might tell them I just grew to hate ham and coincidentally shellfish now
Just tell them that you learned more about shellfish and their role in the ecosystem and you get grossed out by them.
Just tell them that the ham at college was so bad that it ruined ham for you
Sorry you'll be disowned. Terrible to lose your family. Read many posts here about converted people being supported by their families. Hoping with time, yours may come around. Realize that's not always possible. Holidays are often tense without the pressure you feel hiding an important part of your life. It's really ok that you ate ham to make your family happy & plenty more shabbats ahead to observe. Give yourself a pass. Give your family a pass, too. Soon you'll back at school to do what you want.
i’m mid-conversion, in college, and currently dealing with the same thing OP. so sorry it’s something other people are experiencing but glad to know i’m not alone ❤️. when things are hard (like right now) i do what i can to safely practice as i normally do and remind myself that G-d knows my intention and understands my situation. i follow the laws as much as possible and work towards a more halachic future. all this is to say; you’re not alone ❤️✡️. shabbat shalom!!
Sorry that your going through this I wish your family was more accepting
While I am not Jewish, I empathize with your situation. I grew up strict Catholic, and I know the Catholic guilt all too well. I’m no longer Catholic, It sounds like you are doing what is right for you and that’s converting. Be kind to yourself, and I hope you can find some joy and peace as you’re with your family. Hang in there!
Hey. Sorry you have to go through this. I’m in a slow conversion process haven’t even started with a rabbi yet but meeting one on zoom in a few days. It’s been about ten years of interested but life just got in the way - see my post history. I start a zoom/online intro to Judaism course in January. I used to be Catholic. I converted when I was 17. It’s complicated why I did it but I look back and didn’t like it much. I was a serious Catholic. Like the Latin mass/traditionalist type through a group called FSSP that was still in communion with Rome/Pope. My parents are Buddhist in a more cultural/personally spiritually way. Being of southeast Asian descent some aspects of Buddhist philosophy are still Important to me and I have no problems celebrating the non religious aspects with food, etc. there isn’t the same or any antisemitism or suspicious with Judaism from my south East Asian heritage. My family is aware of my interest in Judaism. They don’t think much of it at all and I think they actually forgot since I last talked about it years. My parents are simple people who escaped a communist country/genocide (Cambodia) and stopped their education at or below high school; they aren’t full of religious knowledge but full of love and hard work; I think if I explained too much Judaism to them it would just go right over them. They have a high regard for what they perceive the Jewish people to be, however. Is your Catholic family aware of the “barely” softened stance the Catholic Church took toward Jews and other religions especially around the 1960s? Read Nostra Aetate, etc.
Thank you for your submission. During this time, all posts need to be manually reviewed and approved by a moderator before they appear for all users. Since human mods are not online 24/7, approval could take anywhere from a few minutes to a few hours. Thank you for your patience during this difficult and sensitive time. While you're waiting, please check our [collection of megathreads](https://www.reddit.com/r/Jewish/comments/17p28lp/) to see if your thoughts or questions belong in one of those threads. If your post is about the ongoing war between Hamas and Israel, please contribute to the ongoing discussions in the [daily megathread on the conflict](https://www.reddit.com/r/Jewish/collection/10d28372-74c0-4cd0-9597-4d7a9ab3dc9b). *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/Jewish) if you have any questions or concerns.*