My grandma, Marinette, used to be a secretary at an airforce base in Morocco. She would often converse with the pilots about their missions and experiences all over the world. One day, a pilot approached her and asked if she was Jewish, to which she responded yes. The pilot said to her, “Marinette, it’s an unbelievable sight to behold. We fly over thousands of miles of desert and sand, and in the middle of all that desert landscape, there is something that is nothing short of a miracle: an oasis of green in a sea of brown. Your people are absolute magicians. I’ve never seen anything like it.”
My mom told me this story at a very young age. Perhaps I was 9 or 10 and was just beginning to fully understand what being Jewish really meant. At the time, I was attending Jewish day school--which I attended from kindergarten through my senior year of high school--and was taught that some of the most important parts of Judaism are prayer and the belief in God. Yet, every time I heard this sentiment, I thought back to my mothers anecdote.
Judaism isn’t just about religion. Judaism is about values. It is about a culture of perseverance, with traditions from all around the world. This story was the perfect example of this.
More than anything, Judaism has given me a sense of community and tradition. At home, Judaism means having Shabbat dinner every Friday night--not just to honor God, but to spend time with family, friends, and others in the community who share our same values. Judaism means hosting exchange students who come to our community of New York Jews to teach about Jewish cultures from around the world, and how we can all fit together under one umbrella despite our different traditions and backgrounds.
The values instilled through my childhood followed me into my college years. Being a stranger (a freshman student) in a foreign land (my college campus), I resorted back to my family's Jewish practices to meet new people. I attended Hillel events and Chabad Shabbats--not just to acknowledge holidays, but to find people who share the values of charity, kindness, joy, and perseverance.
So what does Judaism mean to me? It means carrying forward a culture of resilience and community--a heritage that, like that oasis in the desert, continues to thrive, inspire, and bring people together no matter where in the world we find ourselves.
