Reflections from the Holiday Season

As the holiday season has come to an end, I am attempting to regain some sort of handle on the enormities of my life. I am a senior in college a year late. Many of my cohorts from high school are already in graduate school, some in doctorate programs even. I am in a very awkward place in my life where I am both in college and ready to be done with college. The past three years have been a time of much growth and perspective for me. While I was not thrilled at first to be attending Temple University, I have come to the realization that while it might not have been what I wanted at the time it was most certainly what I needed. I had spent the 7 years prior to my matriculation at Temple in the "Jewish Bubble" as it were, and to be honest I had a bit of a skewed perception of the world. The world in which I thought I wanted to live was one where Jews were knowledgeable about their faith even if they didn't practice. The world in which I conceived was one where everyone came from a similar socioeconomic background. This fantasy world that I concocted was the direct result of my privileged religious upbringing.

That is not to say that I grew up observant, quite the contrary. I grew up in a home where we only began keeping strict kashrut at my behest in high school. I remember going to many restaurants as a youth right after Saturday morning services for some treif cuisine. The funny thing is that I seem to have forgotten that I lived this way up until Middle/High School. I had become so accustomed to living within the bubble that I had forgotten that there were plenty (if not a majority) of Jews in America who barely even graze against the bubble in their lifetime. Through USY and High School, I had left that realm of thought and experience and found myself in a wholly Jewish worldview. Honestly, I am glad that I truly found myself in the realm of Jewish experience and thought. However, I am not proud of the fact that I lost who I was entirely for a time. I lost the perspective that my non-observant upbringing offered. I lost my ability to connect with disenfranchised Jews who did not make their Judaism or being Jewish a priority in their lives.

What I found when I got to Temple was just that: many Jewish students who were simply nominally Jewish. They identified either as "ethnic Jews", or merely put the term down under race on any number of forms. These people were living in the spectrum of American Jewish experience (that is: what is experienced by modern Jews living in America), that I had ceased to subside in or recognize. I am ashamed to say that I honestly found it abhorrent that so many of my peers seemingly lacked anything that I could recognize as a sense of Jewish identity. Truth be told, I was as ignorant as I perceived that they were, I was looking in the wrong places.

While I had come to think of Jewish identity as being linked with knowledge about history and outward signs of identification, I had simply written many a person off without scratching the surface of their character. I am sorry that I did that, because it was not until much later in my collegiate experience that I learned that I was sorely wrong. Although my collegiate compatriots did not show what I understood as discernible signs of Jewish identity, I slowly began to realize that what I was looking for might not be there. In place of identity based on historical background or religious practice, I found that the very same people who I labeled as ignorant had and have a decidedly strong pride in their Judaism. While they may not relate to Jewish practice and religion in the same manner as I, their pride in who they are is not diminished.

Pride and growth go hand in hand. I have seen the seedlings of pride used to cultivate the growth of many individuals in college. From watching peoples' transformations after their first Israel experience on birthright to seeing my fraternity brothers study for Bar Mitzvahs that they would have never had otherwise, I have realized that nothing is as simple as it appears. While my initial judgements of the type of Jew that my campus attracts were erroneous on all accounts, it should also be noted that I was wrong to judge. I have learned a great deal about who modern American Jews are and where they stand on many issues.

In light of my anticipated career choice, I will say again: While I did not want to attend Temple University at first, it was most certainly the place that I needed to attend. My experiences here have helped me "pop" the bubble with which I had surrounded myself. I am so grateful for the wonderful people who have helped me see what I was blind to before...