(Jewish Group) Q&A: A black, Oklahoma-raised Jew inspired by her mother's values

[Behind the Aegis]

(THIS IS THE JEWISH GROUP! RESPECT!!)

In 2011, Paula Pretlow retired as senior vice president at the Capital Group, where she worked on behalf of clients invested in public pension plans. These days, the longtime investment industry executive is immersed in philanthropic endeavors, serving on multiple nonprofit and corporate boards and committees, including the Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation, the Kresge Foundation and Northwestern University, where she earned an undergraduate degree and MBA from the Kellogg School of Management. Pretlow, 63, also serves on the board at Congregation Emanu-El. The San Francisco resident is the proud mother of two and grandmother of one.


J.: You made a life-altering decision to become a Jew. How would you describe your religious path?

Paula Pretlow: I grew up in Oklahoma City — my family’s roots go very deep in the soil of Oklahoma to the Muscogee, or Creek Nation — and I was third-generation Christian Science. Christian Science is a metaphysical, cerebral religion where you are taught to question. We attended church — first a black Christian Science church, then a primarily white one. But since childhood, I have gravitated toward Jews. My grandparents worked for Jews, and at school I was drawn to the Jewish kids.

When I was a single parent in Orinda, I began talking to one of the rabbis at Temple Isaiah in Lafayette. She outlined a course of study for me. At 50, I became a Jew. I remember going to the mikvah. I came up coughing and crying. I felt that my mother, who had died the year that I decided to become a Jew, was at my shoulder. It was as if she were still alive.

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