When I interviewed Jacob Lunon, he said I should interview his wife, she also has a fascinating story. And he was right!
Talia was born in Spokane, Washington, into an Irish Catholic family. When she was one, her parents divorced. Talia almost died of a lung infection, cystic fibrosis, and asthma. Her mother lived an affluent, golf-and-country-club lifestyle in the city, while her father came from a farmer family, so Talia had diverse experiences growing up. Her father’s mother had a log cabin without drinking water. Talia had a horse, and joined her grandmother, who was part Chippewa, in spending time at the nearby Native American Reservation. Hearing her stories was more interesting for the kids than watching TV.
Talia was involved with Up With People, and was on national TV surrounded by kids from Kenya. Decades before they met, her future husband Jacob saw that moment on TV with his mother, laughed, and always remembered it.
She later got involved in the hippy movement. She became disillusioned from Catholicism and joined an Evangelical Protestant church and the Jesus Movement.
She claims that in Catholicism, they never read the bible - the idea is that the priests and nuns would teach you things out of the bible. The first time she read a stripture herself, and opened the bible, was at 18 years old. She went on to bible college to become a minister.
She later found and fell in love with a Messianic Jewish congregation. While the movement was founded by Christians to ensnare Jews into worshiping their leader, this particular congregation underwent a shift when its minister found out that he was actually Jewish, and subsequently shifted his beliefs and practices, as well as those of his congregation.
When Talia stumbled upon the website for Aish HaTorah, she decided to follow latent longings and signs from throughout her life to convert and become Jewish.
Talia shared from her experiences working in prisons as a Minister and the people she worked with, as well as the story of meeting Jacob through her Messianic Jewish congregation.
Not mentioned in our interview is the fact that Talia has been working as a doula for 13 years. She helped deliver all but one of Nissim Black’s children.
Note: This conversation was recorded on June 3.
Jacob and Talia live in Rehavia, near Nachlaot.
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