Narrative Summary
Interview with Elizabeth Weiner by Katie Norris
I arrived at Dr. Elizabeth Weiner’s home a little earlier than she expected me, as I was
pulling all of my things together that I needed to interview her; she was pulling into the
driveway. As she got out of the car with arms full of groceries, she said to me, “I thought I had
15 more minutes, I’m sorry.” I assured her that all was well and apologized myself for being
early. She rushed me inside because she was on a very short time schedule and only had exactly
an hour and fifteen minutes for our interview. She settled me at her kitchen table and began
immediately baking bread.
This is a perfect representation of Elizabeth’s life, busy, busy, and busy. Professionally
she is a correctional psychologist for a prison here in Springfield. As a mother she has three
children, two girls and a boy, who are varying ages and all very involved themselves in school
and the Synagogue. In Judaism, she is very affiliated with the Synagogue, she serves on the
board of directors, teaches religious school on Sundays, she’s in the sisterhood, in the book club,
plays Mahjongg and even sings in the choir. She says that’s one of the reasons, she feels
religious is because she’s at the Synagogue all the time.
Elizabeth was raised in Michigan and learned to be so religiously involved through her
mother. Her mother is very involved in the United Church of Christ, and when Elizabeth was
young she was very involved in the church there doing things such as youth group, choir, church
camp and bible studies. And so her mother was the greatest influence on her religiosity. So, I
asked her then, with all of this religious involvement, what is most significant to her about her
religious life? She said that, raising Jewish children was the most significant part of her religious
life, because if you don’t raise Jewish children then we don’t have a religion.
She continued to knead, stretch and braid the dough as her story unfolded. How she came
to be in Springfield, Missouri, her conversion to Judaism; but most of all how she feels a
continuous struggle with discrimination and intolerance here in the Ozarks. Elizabeth loves the
Synagogue here, however, she stressed that she is a conservative Jew and so many of the
practices of the Synagogue she didn’t believe in or approve of but that is her only option here.
She has also had hardships concerning her children in school and her husband’s job opportunities
Despite the troubles she feels that the Ozarks culture has been to her family she is still
extremely religious and loves being Jewish. When I asked her if there was anything else that she
thought I should know, either about her life or about Judaism in general, she said stressed that
considering the conversion to Judaism was an extremely important decision, not to be taken
lightly. That one should not convert to “get married” as many people do, because once you take
that step, once you make that move to become Jewish you are potentially affecting many
generations; so be sure.