Both keep the Sabbath and follow the laws of kashrut. Both are active members of their synagogues and are well-versed in the laws and traditions of Judaism.

But both men followed an unorthodox -- and un-Orthodox -- path to their current beliefs and practices.

Hove was a third-generation Lutheran pastor before he left the ministry and eventually converted to Judaism. Scalamonti served as a Roman Catholic priest before he, too, left the church and converted to Judaism.

"I just felt it was the right spiritual path for me," said Hove.

For Scalamonti, a "loss in faith" followed by a period as an atheist culminated in an Orthodox conversion. Scalamonti, who believes he is the only living former Catholic priest to convert to Judaism, has written a book about his spiritual journey.

Jews-by-choice are not a new phenomenon.

Rabbi Israel Gordon, director of administration at the Lubavitch movement's Rabbinical College of America in Morristown, N.J., cited many instances in the Bible and Talmud of Jews-by-choice who have enriched the Jewish people through their scholarship and devotion.

The Book of Songs notes that God considers converts special and watches over them. Three times a day when saying the prayer known as the Amidah, Jews ask God to bless the "righteous converts" among them.

"The Talmud says that converts are very difficult for the Jewish people because we pale by comparison to [converts'] devotion," Gordon said. "We must treat them as special because they had the courage to leave their former life."

A native of Scranton, Pa., Scalamonti fulfilled a boyhood dream when he spent 13 years in a Catholic seminary. He became a missionary, dealing with high school and college youths, and establishing a center for battered women.

"I loved being a priest," he recalled. "If I still believed what I did as a boy, I'd still be a priest today."

Hove, who grew up in South Dakota and Iowa and attended college and seminary in St. Paul, Minn., eventually led a Lutheran church in Massapequa, N.Y.

Yet each found he could no longer be part of that life. In Hove's case, the process took some 20 years. With Scalamonti, it came to a head over a shorter period.

"Much of my problem centered on birth control," Scalamonti said of the Catholic Church's ban on the use of artificial contraception.

As a priest, he heard numerous women confess to the sin of using birth control. If they promised never to use it again, he instructed them to perform acts of contrition and granted absolution. Those who did not promise were, in effect, excommunicated.

He became even more troubled by the issue when a woman who already had five children -- and a serious heart problem that precluded her risking another pregnancy -- confessed to using birth control.

Scalamonti's final break came after another woman bluntly informed him that he, as a priest, had no right to tell her not to use birth control. It was then that Scalamonti realized he had to leave his boyhood dream behind and abandon the priesthood.

"I lost faith," he said. "I hated God. I cursed him. I just became an atheist."

For Hove, 65, there was no single dramatic incident, but rather "a progressive growth" that took place over a 20-year period through study of the Hebrew Bible.

"I did not have a loss of faith," he explained, "but rather an increasing growth and conviction that [Judaism] was the right spiritual path for me."

For both men, leaving the clergy posed a more pressing problem: Now they had to decide what to do with the rest of their lives.

When Scalamonti left the priesthood, he had no viable job skills and didn't even know how to write a check.

He also had no experience in interacting with women, a problem that came to a head while he was working as the assistant manager of a steakhouse in Silver Spring, Md.

It took Scalamonti weeks to get the courage to ask out a fellow employee. When they went out for dinner, Scalamonti was surprised to see his date order only salad.

"She confessed that she was Jewish -- not that I cared," he said. "Then she said she was kosher. At the time, not only had I never met many Jews, but I didn't even know what kosher meant."

Despite their different backgrounds, the couple continued to date and got married.

The now-devout Jew has a theory about why the two were drawn together by a force almost out of their control: It was God's way of bringing Scalamonti back to him.

"Through her and her wonderful devout family, I found the two great loves of my life: Judaism and Diane."

His interest in Judaism was further sparked by an invitation to a Shabbat dinner at Diane's home. The former priest was somewhat taken aback when he walked in and saw his future mother-in-law lighting candles, and the challah and wine on a table covered by a white linen cloth. The scene reminded him of church.

"I saw the kiddush cup, two loaves of bread and I thought, `My God, I could be saying Mass,'" he said. "I felt like performing the sacraments."

Later that evening, he asked Diane's father about the symbolism behind what he had seen and became fascinated by what he calls Judaism's "beautiful traditions."

While wine and bread in Christianity are "dark" symbols representing Jesus' blood and sacrifice, he found that in Judaism they represent joy and goodness.

Scalamonti said he was drawn further toward Judaism by such concepts as tikkun olam, mending the world, and the requirement that each Jew must do good deeds and show kindness to perfect the world.

He was captivated by Judaism's positiveness.

"I realize now when I look at the Christian scriptures there are so many things I never saw," he added. "I was blinded by faith."

His decision to go through a circumcision and Orthodox conversion was not done to pacify his wife or in-laws.

Said Scalamonti: "God came back to me; He came back into my life."

Hove, who was in his 50s when he and his wife decided to leave their Lutheran faith in 1988, also says he had a conversion performed according to Jewish law.

The couple are now active members of Orthodox congregation Young Israel of Massapequa, where Hove has served as synagogue president.

Life and his religious beliefs continue to bring Scalamonti new surprises and joy. On Thanksgiving, his eldest daughter announced that she was engaged to "a nice Jewish boy."

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