Tamar Klompas was born a Catholic in a tiny German town. The stirring of her soul, and slow but steady growth, led her to a new life as a Jewish wife, mother, and master gardener

The little patio outside Tamar Klompas’s home in Brighton, Massachusetts is a pleasant place to be on a summer evening. Just beyond the screen door, in the buttery light of the living room, her children are clustered around a laptop, absorbed in a science documentary. At the little table where we sit, wind chimes stir in the breeze, and a cat slinks around the garden just beyond. It’s a small but well-tended space, since Tamar trained and qualified as a Master Gardener. She now helps clients design and manage their gardens, and maintains a gardening blog.

Tamar came to Brighton 12 years ago, as a 32-year-old bride. She’s tall and fair, with blue eyes; she has a serene, thought-out way of speaking and moving. Today a mother of four, including a set of twins, she’s well ensconced and happily settled into her life here.

Tamar’s husband, Dr. Michael Klompas, is the chief of epidemiology at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. Essentially, he’s become the COVID czar of the hospital, their equivalent of Dr. Fauci, leading the team that manages COVID in coordination with the CDC. With his master’s in public health in addition to his medical degrees, it’s up to him to set policy and guidelines and make decisions for the hospital.

The Klompases met at a destination wedding in Italy neither was sure they’d attend. Tamar was a friend of the Italian kallah. Michael was a cousin of the chassan; he’s a South African whose family moved to Toronto when he was growing up.

“At that time, America wasn’t on my radar at all,” Tamar says. “I was hoping to return to Eretz Yisrael.” But they clicked at the wedding, and after a period of long-distance dating, Tamar took a deep breath, married Michael, and moved to Boston, where he had a position.

But Tamar’s story really begins in a small town in Bavaria, a long distance from Jewish Brighton geographically, culturally, and spiritually.

Restless Spirit

Tamar describes her childhood home, a village 45 minutes south of Munich, as quiet and sheltered. It had a tiny population — just under 1,000 people.

“It was stifling,” Tamar recalls. “Everyone has a role to perform in the social fabric of the village, and it’s easy to incur disapproval.” Her parents were Catholic, her father a civil servant.

Tamar describes herself as having been an introspective, contemplative teenager, prone to losing herself in brooding philosophical novels. She was intrigued by Judaism even then.

“There were no Jews in my village, and my first impression of Jews was that of victims,” she says. “That inspired my empathy, and eventually made me wonder, ‘Who are these people?’ Most of my impressions came from the movies I saw, where I perceived Jews as refined, high-minded people with elevated values.”

The Gulf War broke out during her high school years, and piqued her interest in the Middle East in general and Israel in particular. She even toyed with the idea of converting, but it was a phase that cooled and dissipated. Nevertheless, her interest persisted, and when she went to university, she signed up to learn Hebrew to gain a closer understanding of Middle Eastern culture. She majored in sociology and political science.

Shortly after she finished her exams, in 2001, her father passed away. “That was a crisis moment for me,” she says. “He’d been ill for many years, and his death wasn’t unexpected, but it still came as a blow. I found myself looking for answers.”

The university offered an exchange program with Israel, which would allow her to pursue a master’s degree in sociology and political science at Hebrew University. The following year she was on a plane to Israel.

Once in Jerusalem, Tamar made an attempt to reconnect with Catholicism. She tried going to the German Catholic Church near the Zion Gate in the Old City. “It didn’t help me. It felt empty, flat,” Tamar says. “Instead I felt myself drawn to the Kotel. The first time I went, I felt a real spiritual connection. I found myself going over and over again.”