INTERESTING ARTICLE IN THE JERUSALEM POST (link requires free registration) about a former Catholic nun, Rivkah Hyatt, who converted to Judaism. As far as I can tell from the article, she does not -- unlike other ex-Catholic Jewish converts such as Stephen Dubner -- have any ethnic Jewish background. Her reasons seem to be partly theological, but more a reaction against the extremely strict discipline of her cloistered Franciscan order (eg, one girl whose father died during her novitiate was not allowed to attend the funeral, since it fell during her year of absolutely no contact with the outside world).

Religious conversions always fascinate me. Almost all of the Christians I know of who've become Jews are former Catholics; very few Protestants, except for one French ex-Salvo (whose name escapes me) and a friend of a friend of a friend whose former denomination was Seventh-Day Adventism, which meant the difference was about the smallest it can be between Judaism and Christianity, at least as regards dietary laws.