Tehila Munoz’s Compelling Journey to Judaism

Tehila, née Cheris Marie, was born in 1981, into a non-practicing Catholic family in the Bronx. She got married at 17 when she and her husband, Miguel Munoz already had a two-year-old son together. Because she and her husband were so young, her husband felt the best way to provide for the family was to join the military.

He was sent to South Carolina where they lived for three years. In 2010, they were sent to Germany as a family, but then the army sent Miguel to Afghanistan alone. Tehila admitted that at this time their marriage was rocky and they viewed living apart as a blessing.

Our early days

Aged 27, with three children ages 11, 8 and 5, with her husband gone for almost a year, she began doing some soul-searching and questioning the origin of Christianity.

“I was trying to figure out why I believed what I believed. Why I celebrated what I celebrated.” Tehila had a strong urge to understand who God was and what He wanted from her.

“I needed to know the purpose of life. I wanted to figure out my role and identity. My soul was very thirsty for truth.”

Tehila also had a Christian friend who mentioned that she was looking into keeping the Jewish Sabbath.

Through her online research, Tehila discovered that it was the Catholic Church who changed the Sabbath from Saturday to Sunday. She uncovered historical antisemitism and noted that certain elements, even fictional ones, were added to the Bible or changed.

Digging deeper, she discovered that much of the origins of Christianity were changed to conveniently fit the religion’s narrative.

Her findings caused her to question even more. “You can’t just change the facts of what took place 1,000 years ago in a certain region.”

She began sending information to her husband asking him to fact check. He was just as intrigued and also wanted to learn more.

Tehila began exploring Jewish websites like Aish.com. Every week she found the weekly Torah portion and would share her findings with her husband via Skype.

Happy reunion

Tehila was most perturbed at the Church’s tinkering of the Bible. “Imagine if I set up rules and the kids started taking away rules and adding others. I’d be upset if I came back to my home and saw the kids disregarding my rules and doing things their own way.”

Christianity seemed to remove the eternal nature of the Bible. “I had been following something that wasn’t working because it was not meant to work.”

At that point Tehila began making some big changes. “While I didn’t officially keep kosher, I stopped eating non-kosher animals. I stopped eating pork and anything else that was deliberately stated as forbidden in the Torah.”

She and her children started to keep Shabbat on Saturday. Her friends began to slowly distance themselves from her because of the changes she was making. “It was really isolating,” she says.

Tehila stopped celebrating all Christian holidays including Easter and Christmas. She sent an email to her family members asking them not to send a Christmas gift, sparking a strong reaction. While she and her husband were on the same page, her family thought she was losing it.

With our three oldest kids before converting

“My parents thought I had spent too much time in isolation in Germany and had been going through some type of crisis. I felt awkward and peculiar around my Christian friends. When you’re trying to keep Judaism in a Christian secular society you are going to feel peculiar. I was okay with that.”

Tehila’s children were excited by the changes. “We left everything behind and came to foreign land. They saw all the changes I was making as an adventure. We had a good connection and good attachment so we were on the same team. They went along with the whole process. I didn’t force them or obligate them.”

Tehila believed that her husband’s mission in Afghanistan saved their marriage.

“If he had stayed home we probably would have been divorced. I started to shift my perspective. Rather than focusing on marital problems I focused on spirituality, my belief system and personal growth. So Miguel came back to a whole new family. I had spent the year working on myself. Judaism healed a part of us. I am thankful for that.”

Having reunited, they left Germany in 2012. They went straight to South Carolina and connected with some Messianic friends.

“We didn’t know what it was at first. It seemed like Christianity with a kippah on your head. We went to Messianic synagogue and everyone seemed excited about Shabbat, they wore tzitzit and kippot. But something felt off. We were not happy because we believed it was not true Judaism.”

While Tehila attended Messianic services, Miguel began to attend Chabad services which were just a few minutes away from their home. He would share with Tehila what went on at Chabad. Slowly they stepped away from the Messianic services and started going full time to Chabad.

“We attended our first Passover Seder. They knew we had still not converted yet they allowed us to join them. We also went to other events. We realized this was where we wanted to be but we weren’t Jewish. We didn’t know what to do.”

My husband asked them about converting and they suggested we remain Christian and simply keep the seven Noahide laws, the Torah’s basic commandments to non-Jews.

“We felt strange attending the shul because everyone else walked, and we were still driving. I didn’t want to feel weird anymore.”

Tehila and Miguel decided to move back to Orlando in 2018 where they both had family. They figured they would find themselves there.

They joined the Conservative synagogue and went through a six-month conversion process. “I was feeling on top of the world. Even though it was not according to Jewish law, my soul felt good.”

Tehila put her kids in public school and hated the fact that they were the only kids wearing kippot and keeping kosher.

“I called the Orlando Torah Center and told them, ‘We are Conservative but we want our kids in your school.’”

Rabbi Shapansky, the head Rabbi, responded, “Come to our center and visit our community.”

“I showed up on Saturday, dressed in a rather short dress, clearly not religious, yet just about every person at the synagogue asked us, ‘Would you like to eat with us today?’

“I didn’t know they would be so open and loving. I fell in love with the community and asked if my kids could go to their school. They told us we needed to move to the community.”

“We put our house on the market and moved two months later. I left my five-bedroom beautiful house and moved to a rental that hadn’t been updated since the 1970s, but I was celebrating! The kids went to the Jewish school and loved it!”

That’s when Tehila and Miguel decided to undergo an Orthodox conversion.

“I met some amazing women. I had a whole pile of books on Jewish observance. I had never learned day-to-day Jewish laws. Even when I visited Chabad they didn’t want to teach me because I was a Noahide. I was SO happy!” enthuses Tehila.

The only thing Tehila missed was having family with whom to share the Jewish holidays.

“During the holidays we were the only ones without Jewish family. My kids say they don’t have a bubby and zaide and Jewish cousins. Hearing them say this hurts my heart. But we are the pioneers of Judaism in my family. The community has been our family. They invite us all the time.”

Tehila and her husband, now Michael Akiva, converted on the same day and were married according to Jewish law.

Before the wedding, as she was ready to make her entrance, Tehila suddenly felt a wave of panic overcome her.

“I suddenly felt so alone because I realized that not one person from my family was in attendance and I started to tear up. I felt like I had left everything behind me. But when I turned the corner, I saw the entire community standing there ready to welcome me to my wedding. I may have lost my family, but I gained an entire community who now serve as my newfound family.

“I felt like I lost so much but then realized I have gained so much more. Seeing everyone there filled my heart at my wedding. I realized all the people on my journey were there and I felt so overwhelmed with love.”

Tehila and Michael Akiva went through a long and arduous journey to have more children. Today they have eight children. Some have converted while others have not.

Tehila shares words of encouragement to other converts and those looking to convert.

The entire family during Hanukkah

“You don’t really understand the importance of community until you live in one. It helps you and is a prerequisite of conversion.”

Tehila believes that conversion is a journey and not a destination. “It’s not like okay, I converted that’s it. No, you continue to grow and learn for the rest of your life. You’re joining something that is millennia old. And each chapter in life brings another exciting story.”

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