מאגר סיפורי מורשת

Describe the first time you felt a sense of your Jewish Identity?

My Savta's family celebrated each and every one of the Jewish holidays. But as a kid, she did not feel a sense of her Jewish identity because that was not the way she thought as a kid. Her best friend lived five houses away and had a very observant Catholic family. They celebrated many holidays, and they would always go over to each other's houses.

 

At this time she realized that not everybody was Jewish, but that she was. Another time my Savta felt a sense of her Jewish identity was when she started to attend Hebrew school at her synagogue. Her teacher made a big deal about how Savta's class would be the first to learn modern Hebrew, and this made her feel very special.

Describe a memory of celebrating a Jewish holiday when you were young?

One memory my Savta has of celebrating a Jewish holiday when she was young was the Passover Seder. She remembers always getting very dressed up to go spend the Seder at her Aunt Min's house. She remember that she and her sibling loved to go search for the Afikomen, but they did not like the matzah balls- she really them being more like golf balls than matzah balls. She always pretended to like them, though. For many years, Savta's birthday was on Passover, and sometimes on a Seder night. Her Aunt Min would always make her a sponge cake with strawberries and cream to celebrate. One more thing Savta remembers about Passover was that her older cousins would teach her to recite the four questions so that she could recite them during the Seder.

What is your favorite Jewish tradition you practice today and why?

Savta's favorite Jewish holiday to celebrate today is Sukkot. She loves to build and decorate her Sukkah, and she especially loves to fulfill the mitzvah of הכנסת אורחים, welcoming friends and family into her home. When she has the chance, she also likes to learn more Torah.

 

One of the most interesting things I learned from Savta was that she felt a sense of her Jewish identity by knowing that she was different from her best friend, who was Catholic, but also by knowing that she was the same as other people when she started Hebrew school and her teacher emphasized how her class was the first at that school to learn modern Hebrew. She felt a sense of her Jewish identity by being close to it and far away from it.

 

תשע"ו, 2016