It's a conversation I had had hundreds of times in my 44 years as a Jewish educator. However, this time was different: It was with my son.
Sometimes we create our own traditions, sometimes we carry on a tradition we inherit, and sometimes a tradition can come from unexpected places.
My sisters and I grew up in Central Maine, where my family was one of a small handful of Jewish families scattered in this remote, wooded corner of the diaspora.
In their new book JewAsian: Race, Religion, and Identity for America’s Newest Jews, scholarly husband/wife team Helen Kiyong Kim and Noah Samuel Leavitt examine the intersection of race, religion, and ethnicity in the increasing number of households that are both Jewish American and Asian American (like theirs is).
URJ Crane Lake Camp, a Reform Jewish summer camp in Stockbridge, MA, recently released this beautiful video about what it means to be a Reform Jew, both at summer camp and beyond. In sharing the video, Crane Lake posted, “We are all different and unique and yet so similar. Being Jewish isn’t about what you look like or where you come from. It’s about how it makes you feel.”
When my brother Jerry died, the questions were not just where to sit shiva or for how long. They were more fundamental: Should I sit shiva for my non-Jewish brother at all?
