Former Liberian Dictator Finds Judaism

By JTA June 9, 2009

Former Liberian dictator Charles Taylor has decided to convert to Judaism, one of his wives told the BBC.

Taylor, who is set to go on trial for war crimes in the Special Court for Sierra Leone, apparently discovered Judaism in prison in the Hague.

“He’s now a Jew. He’s practicing Judaism,” Victoria Taylor told BBC Radio June 2 after a three-week visit with her husband. “When he got to the Hague, he got to know that he really, really wanted to be a Jew, wanted to convert to Judaism.”

Victoria Taylor said her husband “does believe in Christ,” and that “he hasn’t rejected Christianity. He has always been a Christian. He just decided to become a Jew. He wants to follow the two religions.”

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