Ana
Favorite Jewish food: I really like Matzah ball soup. It’s kind of basic, but my mom makes it really well.
Favorite Jewish holiday: I really enjoy Passover. How would you describe your identity, whatever that means to you? It’s very confusing because I have white parents, so I talk about how I’m adopted from Guatemala, but I’m still more on the whiter side because I grew up with that. When we’re talking about religion, I’ll say I’m Jewish too, and they’re like, “You are?”. Do you feel like your looks and experiences are included in the general picture of what a Jewish person/woman is? Why or why not? I would like to think it is just because we try to be super inclusive. I notice that a lot of times when I’m with Jewish friends, a lot of them are white. I know maybe one or two other POC that are Jewish. I think a lot of the Jewish folks here are white. They try to be inclusive, but I do notice it’s a lot of white folks (skin tone wise) |
Has this affected your feelings about Judaism/Jewish spaces? Why or why not?
Not necessarily. Because I grew up with white folks as my parents, I kind of just adapted into it anyways. I was hanging around a lot of white people because those were the groups my parents decided to put me into. It didn’t really change my opinion on anything. Do you feel like you’ve been generally welcomed in Jewish spaces? Yeah, definitely. I bounced around to a few different synagogues and Sunday school places just because my parents were trying to find one they liked best. Every single one of them, I’ve been included a lot in it. All the teens always tried to reach out to me, they keep reaching out to me which is great. It’s very inclusive. Even if I can’t go all the time, I like how they try to include me. When I first reached out to you, you said that you don’t fully feel a part of the culture and you struggle with that part of your identity. Can you tell me more about that? Yeah. Junior year, my APUSH teacher showed us Latinx folks that I had never seen in literature before. I started going over to that part of my identity more while my brother is at a Jewish frat at Yale right now. I never felt like a part of it [Jewish culture] because I didn’t have my bat mitzvah. I did a service project, but I didn’t have the part or anything. I always kind of felt a little bit alienated. I don’t really know why, but that was my feeling. With that class, I took a different turn on my identity. |
" Junior year, my APUSH teacher showed us Latinx folks that I had never seen in literature before. I started going over to that part of my identity more while my brother is at a Jewish frat at Yale right now." |
"But I do appreciate everything I’ve gotten from it. I’ve learned a lot of lessons from Judaism and the community aspect." |
Does Judaism/identifying as Jewish play an important role in your life? Why or why not?
It’s not a super big role in my life. That’s not the first thing I go to claim as a part of my identity. But I do appreciate everything I’ve gotten from it. I’ve learned a lot of lessons from Judaism and the community aspect. I’ve just never been super religious in the first place, but I like the idea of having a community and celebrating. It’s how I was raised and I liked it. What is your favorite part about being Jewish? I have two. One: the food, I love the food. That’s one of my favorite parts, going through all the Jewish holidays with all that food. The second one would have to be the community. My dad had reconnected with some long distance family members who were Jewish, and they invited us to their seder. It was cool to be invited and treated as family even though we really hadn’t talked to them ever before. Just having that community being built around Jewish identity was awesome. |