Atlanta Jewish Times | Page 6

www.atlantajewishtimes.com

LOCAL NEWS

Search for G-d Leads to Conversion
Former Baptist shares her story with Bena
By R.M. Grossblatt

“I

was a Baptist country girl
raised in the Oklahoma Bible
Belt,” Leah Schiermeyer began
as she talked to about 100 women at
Congregation Beth Jacob. It was the
fifth weekly Shalosh Seudot (third meal
of Shabbat) event sponsored by Bena,
the Atlanta Scholars Kollel women’s
division.
At the earlier Shabbat gatherings,
women enjoyed wraps, salads and desserts by the Spicy Peach and speeches
by Rebbetzin Miriam Feldman, the
principal of Temima: the Richard and
Jean Katz High School for Girls; Esther
Pransky; Rivka Lipschutz; and Esther
Sulkes.
Bena co-chairs Julie Silverman and
Batsheva Gelbtuck planned the summer program in Toco Hills and Dunwoody.
For this last women’s Shalosh Seudot in the Beth Jacob conference room,
Schiermeyer, the author of “A Simple
Twist of Faith,” shared her story of conversion.

“Rabbi
Singer
Active
in
her
raised serious queschurch, Schiermeyer
tions about the validity
at 37 felt that she
of the New Testament
wanted a closer relaand why Jews don’t actionship with G-d. One
cept these Scriptures,”
night before she fell
said Schiermeyer, who
asleep, she prayed to
at first brushed off the
G-d: “I really want to
whole thing. But when
know You, whatever
she and her husband
the cost, whatever it
tried to talk to their
takes. Please lead me
pastor or close friends
into a deeper and more
about what they had
meaningful relationlearned, they were the
ship with You.”
ones brushed off.
Then events startLeah Schiermeyer
One evening in
ed happening.
December, they were
Her husband, a
physician in the Air Force and a Bible visited by leaders of their congregateacher at their church, was open to tion. The Schiermeyers were excited
learning about other religions. When that their friends were finally coming
a good friend, another Air Force physi- to discuss what they learned from Rabcian who was returning to his Jewish bi Singer’s tapes.
Sitting in a living room decorated
roots, raved about tapes by Rabbi Tovia Singer, Dr. Schiermeyer borrowed with a Christmas tree, Schiermeyer ofthem. He thought they would be in- fered her guests eggnog, warm cider
teresting and prove that his Christian and food. They turned down everyfaith was true, but the opposite hap- thing.
Instead, the group told the Schierpened.

Film Screening
and Conversation with
Christian Delage
Monday, August 24, 2015 J 7:00 pm

An evening with director Christian Delage, historian,
curator of Filming the Camps - John Ford, Samuel
Fuller, George Stevens: From Hollywood to Nuremberg
exhibition, and filmmaker whose earlier credits include the
documentary Nuremberg, The Nazis Facing Their Crimes.

AUGUST 21 ▪ 2015

Admission is $5 for members; $10 for nonmembers. Reservations
required, call 404.814.4150 or visit online.

AJT
6

AtlantaHistoryCenter.com/Lectures

Stevens and his crew filming in France, n.d. © Courtesy of the Margaret Herrick Library, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Beverly Hills, CA

Atlanta History Center

meyers to leave the church.
Around the same time, Schiermeyer, who was pregnant with twins, was
diagnosed with bladder cancer and given three years to live. It was a time of
great upheaval for her and her family.
When she shared this part of her story,
her eyes filled with tears.
Eventually, the Schiermeyers
moved to Denver. Lori Palatnik, a wellknown speaker at Aish.com and director of the Jewish Women’s Renaissance
Project, lived nearby, and Schiermeyer
asked whether they could study together.
In 2004, after 10 years of study
and soul-searching, the Schiermeyers
converted to Judaism. They joined an
Aish HaTorah synagogue and remarried according to halacha (Jewish law).
Schiermeyer has been cancer-free for
12 years.
At the end of her talk, Schiermeyer
shared that it was a particular pleasure
to speak in Atlanta because her son
married a wonderful girl from here.
She added, “Be careful what you pray
for,” then she smiled. ■