This article was produced as part of JTA’s Teen Journalism Fellowship, a program that works with Jewish teens around the world to report on issues that affect their lives.

When I finished a training conference at a BBYO leadership summer camp last summer in Pennsylvania, I couldn’t wait to tell my family in Canada. Most family members wished me mazel tov and told me they were proud of me.

But not everyone was so positive. A close family friend asked me if I was going to convert because “you’re not actually Jewish.”

Hearing this, I was so confused. I was a member of my school’s Jewish Student Union and attended events for both BBYO and NFTY Jewish youth groups. But I grew up with a Jewish dad and a non-Jewish mom. For those who hold the traditional view that Jewishness is inherited through the mother, nothing I do will be enough.

My parents immigrated to the United States, separating me from both my Swedish family and my Canadian family, including the Jewish side in Toronto. My parents never went out of their way to make me follow a religion because they wanted me to make the choice on my own. It wasn’t until eighth grade when, sparked by a BBYO convention, I really got active........

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