Statement of Purpose

My name is Yojanan Berrocal Escobar (pronounced Yochanan), I was born in the city of
Barranquilla, Colombia on December 20 1996 to my parents Maricela Escobar and
Juan Carlos Berrocal. Throughout my life I had been a profoundly spiritual person,
though during my school years I wasn’t associated with any kind of religion, during my
school years I usually stood out because of my good grades and participation in many
of the school events like forums and science fairs. My parents divorced when I was 7
years old and at that time my mother began searching for her spirituality which
eventually led her to the Jewish community of Barranquilla.
My path through Judaism began when around the year 2010 my mother began assisting
to the synagogue Bet Rakiya in Barranquilla, there she began studying Judaism and
shortly thereafter began to attend prayer services, my mother always talked to me about
the many things she learned there and about how important it is to keep a relationship
with our creator, though initially I wasn’t very much interested in it. It was not until the
year 2014 that I graduated from High School, that I began attending prayer services and
shiurim. At that time my mother had moved to the city of Bucaramanga because of her
job as an ophthalmologist, but luckily enough she put me in contact with a friend of hers
called Aury Santiago, she and her family were orthodox and shomer shabat and they
always invited me over for Shabbat, there I became more deeply acquainted with the
prayers and some basic halachot about Shabat. I also began attending the synagogue
at that time and listening to shurim there on Wednesdays and Shabat about many
diverse topics ranging from Parashat Hashavua, Prayers, Kashrut, Shabat.
In the year 2015 I relocated to Bucaramanga to where my mother was working to begin
university there, I remained there for 2 years and at the end of each semester we had a
2 month vacation period during which I travelled to Barranquilla and attended the
synagogue intensively.
During 2015 my mother had to return to Barranquilla again for her job and I followed suit
in late 2016 and transferred to a local university in Barranquilla in 2017. It was around
this time that my mother and I began to keep the shabat more seriously and attend
prayer services on weekdays as well, we also attended Shiurim on Wednesdays and
Shabat at the synagogue. At this time my rabbi recommended to my mother and I that
we complete our conversion process at the community of Young Israel of Greater
Miami, since there was no authorized Beit Din in Colombia to conduct conversions. And
thus on March 2018 we travelled to Miami, USA to complete our conversion process
with the Beit Din of Rabbi David Lehrfield z’l. After that we returned to Barranquilla and
continued our jewish life as usual, I also began taking Hebrew classes with Morah Ziva
Yaacobi Bigio who worked at the local Hebrew School of Barranquilla and taught me for
around 1 year with classes 2 weekly hours. My mother remarried later that year to an
observant man named Amram who became my step-father. They had their Chupah
during Sukkot 2018.
I finally graduated from university on October 2020 with my Bachelors on International
Business and Finance and had been keen on studying at a Yeshiva in Israel in order to
deepen my knowledge and improve my Hebrew as well. My Friend Leviah Suarez (the
daughter of Aury Santiago) who was studying at a Midreshet at the time recommended
me to come to Israel to learn more. However due to the many lockdowns and
restrictions due to Covid-19 I was unable to leave Barranquilla for the time. I began
working at a local call center called NearShore Call Center during that time to earn
some money. Just recently in 2021 I heard that Leviah was getting married and her
family invited me to her wedding this coming April so I took hold of my savings and
travelled here to witness this spectacular event, around this time I was also told that my
conversion done at Miami is no longer being recognized after the death of Rabbi
Lehrfield and the closing down of his Beit Din the previous year, and that I must do a
new conversion, and thus that is my intention in pursuing a conversion in Israel which I
have no doubt are recognized worldwide.

Sincerely,
Yojanan Berrocal Escobar
Passport AW535410