Rabbi Kari Tuling converted to Judaism in 1994. She received rabbinic ordination in 2004 and a PhD in Jewish Thought in 2013, both from the Hebrew Union College–Jewish Institute of Religion in Cincinnati. Currently she serves as rabbi of Temple Beth Israel in Plattsburgh, New York and teaches Jewish Studies courses at SUNY Plattsburgh.
“Why did you convert?” I have been asked this question many times before, sometimes out of deep interest and sometimes out of polite curiosity.