A first step toward defining my Jewish identity

Yesterday after dinner, we had our group activity for the day. Our initial assignment was to choose things from a group of 20 that our group believed were most important for maintaining a Jewish identity. Some of these things included: having Jewish friends, marrying someone Jewish, calling yourself a Jew, remembering the Holocaust, studying the Torah, and visiting Israel.

There were many points of contention raised during the discussion, where our group struggled with qualifying certain traits as more significant than others, especially because maintaining a Jewish identity means something different to everyone. For example, you can have a Bar/Bat Mitzvah and still struggle with identifying yourself as Jewish. On the other hand, you can have no knowledge whatsoever of Jewish scriptures and still feel extremely connected to your Jewish identity by means of belonging to a Jewish community and surrounding yourself with Jewish peers.

There is no right or wrong way to identify yourself as Jewish, and one person's method of doing so might not be your particular path. However, no path can be deemed less effective than another; as long as you ask yourself why you should consider being Jewish a significant part of your identity, you are on the same page with all other Jews asking themselves the exact same thing. This notion struck me abd really reminded me of why I am on this trip in the first place. I am proud of my Jewish identity, and eager to cultivate an understanding of what exactly being Jewish means to me. From this point forward, each aspect of this experience will certainly contribute to my exploration.

Jamie Friedman.