The Hamas-Israel War In Light of My Conversion From Judaism to Catholicism

Michie · Oct 26, 2023

From Russia to Israel

I was born just before the Second World War in Soviet Ukraine, in Kiev, the only child of a Jewish family. My Ukrainian family left the misery and illiteracy of the Ukrainian province when my father obtained a Soviet army’s modest commandment and my Mother a teaching position.

Then came the War. Four men of our big family served in the Army and died. My mother, grandmother and I were saved by the state in the far East, in honor of my father. Many of our relatives were killed by the Nazis during the occupation of Kiev because they were Jews who had no members of their family serving as commanders in the Army.

I was raised as an only child and a Soviet atheist, not knowing anything about God or Jewish History. Everything I learned about being a Jew, I learned from my mother who only spoke when I told her about a boy who was abused on the street because he was a Jew. When I asked what it meant, I was given no more information.

As a brave communist and also a Jewish boy, I learned well, especially after we had moved to Moscow. At the end of the school, I became a member of the Mathematical University club and
entered Moscow University. There I met new acquaintances and friends, in particular, sincerely believing Russian Orthodox boys and girls. After many new readings, I learned something specifically Russian and tragic about God and History — about the great massacres committed by Communists among Russian Orthodox. Being a student who was 22 years old, I asked for baptism by priest of a small and quiet Moscow parish. Fortunately, I was not denounced. During this time in my life, I was a doctoral student who was married with children.

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