{"id":1539,"date":"2025-06-14T18:09:52","date_gmt":"2025-06-14T22:09:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/jewsinmaine\/?page_id=1539"},"modified":"2025-06-14T18:09:52","modified_gmt":"2025-06-14T22:09:52","slug":"joey-leblanc","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/jewsinmaine\/joey-leblanc\/","title":{"rendered":"Joey LeBlanc"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-resized\"><a href=\"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/jewsinmaine\/files\/2025\/04\/JoeyLeBlanc.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1114\" height=\"1280\" src=\"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/jewsinmaine\/files\/2025\/04\/JoeyLeBlanc.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1614\" style=\"width:385px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/jewsinmaine\/files\/2025\/04\/JoeyLeBlanc.jpg 1114w, https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/jewsinmaine\/files\/2025\/04\/JoeyLeBlanc-261x300.jpg 261w, https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/jewsinmaine\/files\/2025\/04\/JoeyLeBlanc-891x1024.jpg 891w, https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/jewsinmaine\/files\/2025\/04\/JoeyLeBlanc-768x882.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1114px) 100vw, 1114px\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>About the narrator: <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Joey Benjamin LeBlanc was born in Skowhegan and currently lives in Eddington, Maine. Raised in a Catholic family\u2014Joey is a 28-year-old Jewish convert who now serves as the co-vice president of Beth Israel Synagogue in Waterville. He has been instrumental in community efforts, particularly in raising awareness about the newly installed mikvah.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In this excerpt from his interview with Chidiebere Okafor on January 19, 2025 at Colby College, Joey talks about how Judaism appeals to his love of deep learning and community engagement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-audio\"><audio controls src=\"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/jewsinmaine\/files\/2025\/04\/LEBLANC_EXCERPT.wav\"><\/audio><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Transcript:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;For me, what attracts me [to Judaism] is that it&#8217;s the perfect place to be a nerd.&nbsp;Because I like to get serious about a lot of things, I like to really delve into stuff, and Judaism really allows for that.&nbsp; It wants that.&nbsp;There\u2019s just so much for me to do, and it wants you to do that with other people, in community, in a lot of different ways. And so it\u2019s always fun.&#8221; &#8211; Joey LeBlanc<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Joey LeBlanc&#8217;s full oral history interview is available through Colby&#8217;s Special Collections &amp; Archives. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>About the interviewer:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Chidiebere Nelson Okafor is a 19-year-old Nigerian student at Colby College studying physics and mathematics. Raised in a Catholic household and a practicing Catholic himself, Chidiebere was inspired to conduct this interview as a way to explore his family\u2019s ancestral connection to the Jews, rooted in their belief that they are descendants of the lost tribe of Israel. His cultural and religious background, combined with a deep personal curiosity, sparked his interest in Colby\u2019s \u201cJews of Maine\u201d Jan-Plan course.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;Asking me to summarize my experience learning about the mikvah is like asking me to define what makes me whole,&#8221; wrote Okafor. &#8220;Like humans, the mikvah has been dynamic in its evolution&#8230;however, the manner in which I have engaged with the mikvah, and the length to which I have come to know about this ancient ritual have made me aware of not just the mikvah\u2019s growing uses but also its centrality to Judaism. I find it interesting and amazing to think that I never could have imagined that I would unravel the level of freedom of exploration and the different opposing, yet intertwining beliefs that coexist in Judaism by simply studying the mikvah.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>About the narrator: Joey Benjamin LeBlanc was born in Skowhegan and currently lives in Eddington, Maine. Raised in a Catholic family\u2014Joey is a 28-year-old Jewish convert who now serves as the co-vice president of Beth Israel Synagogue in Waterville. He has been instrumental in community efforts, particularly in raising awareness about the newly installed mikvah&#8230;.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18487,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/jewsinmaine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1539"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/jewsinmaine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/jewsinmaine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/jewsinmaine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18487"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/jewsinmaine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1539"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/jewsinmaine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1539\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1615,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/jewsinmaine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1539\/revisions\/1615"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/jewsinmaine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1539"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}