Avra
Favorite traditional Jewish food: It used to be kugel, but then I became lactose intolerant. Regardless, I’d still say kugel.
Favorite Jewish holiday: Right now, I really appreciate Purim on a lot of levels. On a base level, I love getting dressed up in costume, it has always been one of my favorite things. I appreciate how it makes space for joy and weirdness and terror all in one holiday. How would you describe the work that you do at JCUA? I am a community organizer at JCUA, right now working on police accountability. I run our police accountability committee. Right now, we are working on two main campaigns. One to get civilian oversight over the Chicago police department, and the other is to reform the police union contracts. A lot of my work is going around and getting coffee with people in the Jewish committee and building relationships and trusts, and trying to understand why people are spending their time with JCUA. Why do they care about police accountability? Why do they care about doing this with a Jewish lens? I spend a lot of time building deep relationships with organizers of our partner organizations, the organizations that we are in coalition with. A lot of it is trying to shift the balance of power through organizing the Jewish community. That looks like bringing Jewish people to alderman meetings, to protests that the coalition is putting on, getting them out there are city council to play our role as a Jewish community in furthering the campaigns that the coalition runs. |
How would you describe your identity?
Some important pieces of my identity are: Jewish, queer. I identify as genderfluid, which for me means that I feel like being a woman, that is an identity for me, but that is not my whole identity. [I am a] woman and a woman sometimes, sometimes other things. It can be expansive and blurry. I have white skin privilege, which means access to power that whiteness allows for. I am a sibling, I have two brothers and two sisters, so I have an eye for the group and I love holding space in groups of people. I also identify as a sensitive soul. For me, that means a lot of self-care and doing spiritual practices. Do you feel like your looks and experiences are included in the general picture of what a Jewish person is? I think in this day and age, there are definitely many queer Jewish spaces that exist and that I can bring my queerness to. Certainly not all, not in the Jewish communities that I was raised in, but I like to hope that they are also changing slowly. I think there [can be] a shift. When I came out to my mother, she had such a hard time with it. I think I didn’t fit into her general idea of her Jewish kid-- marry a Jewish man, have Jewish babies, send your kids to day school. I probably won’t marry a Jewish man, I have no idea if I’ll have kids! Her trouble accepting that definitely says something about the general perception of what a Jewish person is, and what their experiences should be. But over time, she has shifted, which I do think is reflective of some Jewish spaces. |
"When I came out to my mother, she had such a hard time with it. I think I didn’t fit into her general idea of her Jewish kid" |
"I came back to Judaism through finding spaces where I felt like there were other freaks and weirdos in a room like me, in a way that felt so warm and welcomed and empowering." |
How have these experiences affect your feelings about Judaism?
For me, there was a long time where I did not hang out in Jewish spaces, very intentionally. I needed a big break after my intense Jewish upbringing. Then, I came back to Judaism through finding spaces where I felt like there were other freaks and weirdos in a room like me, in a way that felt so warm and welcomed and empowering. The first Jewish thing I did in many years was actually go to a shabbat service at Mishkan. People were in their pajamas, there was a lot of singing, people were standing in circles, there were a lot of visibly queer people. My experiences of not having felt like I could be myself in the Jewish spaces that I grew up in made me feel extra excited when I found a space that did feel like mine. In some ways, that feeling of marginalization has led me back, and has also led me to pursue more interesting and creative non-mainstream Jewish experiences. Right now, I am doing Kohenet Hebrew Priestess Training Program. It is a three-year program that trains Jewish woman, trans, and queer people. It brings back earth-based, very ritual-focused Judaism. It looks at ways that women were practicing Judaism, and even ways that Jews in ancient Israel were worshipping the divine feminine. There are things that women were doing since the beginning of Judaism that got left out of our mainstream Jewish narrative. Now, the Kohenet community is my main spiritual grounding, and my main Jewish practice. It was through experiences of thinking and wondering, “Is this enough?”, “Why are we talking about G-d as a man?” that lead me to this very fulfilling path. Do you feel like you have been generally welcomed in Judaism? Why or why not? It really depends on the space. Right now, I live in a progressive, left-y, Jewish, queer bubble, and I totally [feel welcomed]. But when I go outside, like back to my home synagogue, there are pieces of my identity that I feel like I have to leave at the door. Like my views on Israel-Palestine, my views that the occupation that is happening in horrible, and it breaks my heart. It breaks my heart to feel like if I even bring that up in certain Jewish spaces, I won’t be taken seriously. Sometimes, I find myself leaving my preferred pronouns at the door because I feel like that is what I have to do to be able to go in that space. It is almost like a form of code switching. |
Are there times you have felt excluded because of your various identities?
Yeah. I tend not to go back to spaces where I know I’ll be excluded because I have all of the privilege and blessing of being a 21st century Jew in Chicago, there are so many other spaces I can go to be Jewish. There are spaces that I wouldn’t want to go in because I feel like this is not for me. Also, I feel like mainstream Jewish spaces are so heteronormative, focused on Israel, and focused on having Jewish babies. None of that is what Judaism is about for me. What does Judaism mean to you? What are the parts of it that are relevant and important to you? I feel like for a lot of Jewish people, Judaism is based in the land of Israel, the Jewish homeland, and a lot of people would say raising a Jewish family, Jewish education. For me Judaism is about this whatever cosmic reason that I was born into this lineage that survived against a billion odds. I see religions as ways that people make sense of the mystery of life. Like, what do we do with this miracle? For me, part of being Jewish feels like leaning into the practices of my ancestors. That means not necessarily replicating them, but constantly finding the tools that anchored my ancestors. That is when I feel most Jewish. Being Jewish, for me, is also about resistance and fighting and community and song and all of the different ways that Jews mark time. Like Shabbat-- totally brilliant technology! Rosh Chodesh, the Jewish Medicine calendar, those are the tools that feel like the meat of it for me. |
"I see my work in the world as moving our people into action. Judaism is the underbelly of my professional life. There is also a connection to my spiritual life in moving Jews, they are my people, and I have compassion for all things that hold us back" |
Does Judaism play an important role in your life?
Yes. Somehow, I ended up being a professional Jew, which is hilarious. I see my work in the world as moving our people into action. Judaism is the underbelly of my professional life. There is also a connection to my spiritual life in moving Jews, they are my people, and I have compassion for all things that hold us back. Jewish time is an anchor that I lean into. I have a little alter in my room, which is actually so Jewish! When I woke up this morning, I played Jewish music on my phone. There is something in my bones that feels really rooted and anchored in Judaism. Can you talk a little bit about your Jewish education growing up? I was raised in Highland Park. I went to [Jewish day school] K-8, I went to Chicagoland Jewish High School, a conservative Jewish school. My mom is a Ramah director, so I grew up going to Camp Ramah in Wisconsin. I was basically involuntary part of USY and all that stuff. I was very saturated in conservative Judaism. We were Shomer Shabbat, so we had lots of neighborhood Jewish friends, so Saturday afternoons and Friday nights were awesome, creative times in my life. When I got to high school, I got really burnt out and disillusioned and didn’t feel connected to Rabbinic Judaism. What is your favorite part about being Jewish? I feel like Judaism has the potential to be really embodied. On Havdalah, we are smelling spices and looking at fire. On Shabbat, we are washing our hands, which I think of washing off all of the work that my hands did. We fill the Kiddush cup with blessings. On Purim, we scream and make noise. There are so many ‘get your body into it’ opportunities in Judaism and it helps me feel alive. |