Sofi Tzdaka on her father: 'He called me stupid. He didn't forgive me until his last day'

Actress Sofi Tzdaka, one of the prominent stars of the Children's Channel, was a guest on the podcast "Ha-Barziya" (Pnai Plus) hosted by journalist Bar Zaga, and spoke about the stormy argument with her father following her decision to convert to Judaism.

"My father took my departure hard. I think he didn't forgive me until his last day. I underwent conversion, they sent me to immerse, and then when I came out of the mikvah, the attendant said to me: 'Now you are Jewish. You cannot be Jewish in a Samaritan home.' So my partner said: 'Okay, let's get married.' We put together a wedding in two weeks, my parents didn't know I was undergoing conversion. I did it right under my father's nose," Tzdaka shared.

Eventually, she had to hold a meeting with her father and tell him about her decision to convert, and to part with one of the identities that had defined her since the day she was born.

"When I reached the zero hour, I initiated a meeting with him at home and told him that I had undergone conversion and that I was leaving the community. His heart was broken, he was really angry. He screamed at me and called me stupid. He told me that I would never be Jewish, that I would forever remain the Samaritan who converted," she recounted with pain.

Later in her remarks, Sofi Tzdaka said that for seven years she dealt with loneliness following her divorce from her husband and the father of her daughter. "From 2001 when I got divorced until about 2008, there were no meals around the table. My daughter would go to her father and I would be at home. Because where was there to go? The holidays were with him. I was alone at home. The difficult feeling stemmed from the fact that I came from a very religious home and I was always very connected to the Holy One, blessed be He. The fact that I left the community does not mean that I left Him. It's hard, as if not to go through this, so who am I? The sense of belonging was difficult."