On Life After Zionist Summer Camp
This is a fantastic article and I feel like the author was speaking directly to me. She's from my father's neck of the woods (my paternal family is from Akron) and my dad and his siblings were all active members of CRUSY (Central Region USY) and also served on its governing board. I was born and raised on the West Coast of Florida and brought up in a Conservative Jewish home (a side note, West Coast Floridian Jews are much different than East Coast Floridian Jews!). I attended JCC Day Camp, complete with daily Hatikvah and Israeli counselors, and when a Ramah (the Conservative Jewish sleepaway camp system) opened in Georgia I went to Ramah as well. Ramah had more of a focus on Jewish living and customs (keeping Kosher, keeping Shomer Shabbos etc.) than Zionism but we had the obligatory lessons in that as well. Ramah Darom was also my introduction to day school students and fluent Hebrew speakers--I could read Hebrew phonetically but had no idea what I was saying, though the fact that all camp announcements at Ramah were in Hebrew certainly helped me learn a bit of Hebrew.
I was always raised with more of a focus on Jewish living, culture and education than Zionism. I was at the top of my Hebrew school class (if we had grades I would have gotten an A+++) and could lead many services and chant Torah in several variations. At one point I thought I would be a Rabbi. I went to Israel for a Bat Mitzvah trip and loved every moment of it...but more as an intensely religious 13-year old than a budding Zionist. I have never felt a desire to move to Israel. Indeed, as I grew up I became more secular in my beliefs if not my practice--I keep all the holidays and am still more than happy to read Torah or lead services if asked. However I do not and never have kept Kosher or Shomer Shabbos and I live with and am very much in live with a goy.
What the author had that I never did was a community of Jewish peers. I never got into USY youth group because I didn't really like the people in it. I tried getting involved with Hillel in college but, again, I didn't really like the people. I love Judaism, the tradition and the culture and the focus placed on education and charity and family...but I'd say my Jewish life outside the home is nonexistent.
But, back to the article: I have not been to Israel since my Bat Mitzvah trip and would love to go back but I am, well, terrified. I am curious as to how my response would be now as a jaded, well-read liberal intellectual (or whatever). I'm also wondering if it will make me feel huge guilt for "straying" from my more observant path (and for dating a goy!) Maybe it would turn me back into a super-Jew (as my friends--nearly all not Jewish--used to call me). Who knows.
Mostly, though, I wanted to thank the author for sharing this article. It is amazing and I will be circulating it among my friends and family!
2
On 'Confessions of a Shopaholic': If Patricia Highsmith Wrote Chick Lit
What?! Claudia Kishi is fantastic. How is dumping a canister of glitter in your hair ever not a good idea?!