by Itay, 2021-2022 Shinshinim
Hello everyone,
My name is Itay and I am 1 of the 4 Shinshinim that are here for the year!
During the 4 months that I have spent in the amazing community of Michigan,
I have noticed one big difference from the Jewish life in Israel: the holidays.
As Jews in the United States,
You get to choose.
You get to choose to go to a Jewish Sunday school,
You get to choose to participate in programs around the community,
You get to choose to raise your kids Jewish.
Every single day, you choose to be Jewish.
The most beautiful thing about that is that there is no right answer to the question “how to be Jewish”. I get to see different ways of being Jewish throughout community and I have lucky to experience it closely with my lovely host family — the Sobols. Even though there are a variety of ways to be a Jew in the diaspora, one main thing which almost all the families consider as their connection to Judaism is the holidays.
This month, we celebrated “Hanukkah”. From my point of view, Hanukkah here in the United States, is all about choosing. This is a time when all the streets are decorated in Christmas decorations, the music at the mall is Jingle Bells 24/7. And yet, the Jewish community is gathering, every single night, to celebrate the holiday of Hanukkah. Every night of Hanukkah, I got the opportunity to see how families choose to celebrate Hanukkah.
And the atmosphere every night was so special and different from what I am used to in Israel. I didn’t take a moment of Hanukkah for granted. Because here, I got to choose to be Jewish.