Meet Max and Eliana: a liberal Jewish comedian and the Orthodox woman he married 

After making an instant connection with a girl called Eliana in a bar in Edinburgh after performing his show at the Fringe, comedian Max Olesker discovered a devastating truth: that despite his upbringing, he was not quite the “right” kind of Jewish. And if he wanted to marry the love of his life, he was in for a rollercoaster of a journey.

They soon became a couple, but when things got serious and their conversations progressed towards their future, they realised the Jewish links that brought them together were going to pull them apart.

Max had been brought up as Jewish, but was not orthodox, whereas Elianas’s family are religious.

“As far as I was concerned I was Jewish,” said Max. “I identified as Jewish, my father was halachically Jewish, and my mother had converted. We were deeply in love but there was this huge obstacle to our being together and marrying.”

The couple split up for a while but then during the pandemic Max stayed with Eliana’s family and experienced the warmth of an Orthodox home.

He decided to undergo a religious conversion which would include living with an orthodox Jewish family and being circumcised.

“The conversion took three years and it changed me in so many ways,” he says. “I learned a huge amount about Jewish practice and gained Jewish knowledge, but I also felt the sense of community and of having a social safety net. It was a privilege to witness and participate in a different kind of Jewish life.

Following the publication of Max’s memoir Making the Cut, he and and Eliana are coming to JW3 to tell their story – including everything you ever wanted to know about Orthodox conversion, from rabbis to relationships and even that infamous date with a scalpel.

Books will be available to buy and be signed on the night.

Making The Cut is at JW3 on 20 October at 7.45pm. jw3.org