To My Daughter on Her Bat Mitzvah by Alex Romano

Jenny,

 Today marks an important step in your Jewish spiritual journey, but in many ways, your journey has been my spiritual journey as well. Your were born Jewish because your mother is Jewish. I was not born Jewish and my journey in becoming a Jew, with my conversion last year, is due, in part, to the journey that has brought you here today.

 One of the things I realized, when I was just about your age, was that I couldn’t have faith in my family’s religion because I didn’t believe that a god existed. I couldn’t find anything in the world around me that proved the existence of a god and I could see no substantiation for the miracles that I was leaning about in the Bible. I concluded that, without proof of the existence of God, there could not be belief. And without belief there could not be faith in a religion.

 Well, a few years ago, without any pushing or suggestion from either of us, you asked to go to Hebrew school and to, one day, be a Bat Mitzvah. You took to your religious studies like a fish to water, doing amazing things. And now you are now standing here today.

 And I am standing here with you in part, because you have allowed me to reevaluate the conclusions I made when I was your age. What I’ve learned, while becoming a part of this temple community and watching you go through your incredible achievements on your spiritual journey, is that there is proof of the existence of God. From my perspective, you are living proof that God exists. A child like you, and the identification and achievement your have made in your Jewish education, is a miracle happening right before my eyes. And I thank you for that.