W hen 29-year-old Ben met his Jewish boyfriend Liam* seven years ago , religion hadn’t played a role in his life before. Ben was raised in an atheist home and attended a secular school, but he would occasionally attend Jewish festivals as Liam’s guest. All of this changed when Liam moved abroad three years ago to study to become a rabbi, and the distance left Ben missing both his boyfriend – and his newfound religious community.

“When he was gone [and] there was no longer any reason for me to keep going as a guest, that's when I began to seriously consider converting,” says Ben. From there, he got in touch with the rabbi at Liam’s Reform synagogue – which practices progressive Judaism, a major denomination that adapts traditional Jewish practices to modern life and culture – and completed a two-year conversion process.…