6 January 24 • 2019
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essay
The Value of Presence
G
rowing up in Boca Raton,
Fla., I received a public-school
education that encompassed a
very narrow understanding of what it
meant to be Jewish. My Judaism was
comprised of Friday
night family dinners,
collecting treats from
the “candy man” at
shul on Shabbat, and
attending both Sunday
school and summer
camp. Most of my
friends weren’
t Jewish,
spent their Friday
nights playing Xbox and could not
fathom the concept of kashrut. I was
an American Jew, but could anyone
guarantee that my children would
also be?
In 2005, my parents took fate into
their own hands and made aliyah
to Israel. Being 10 at the time, I was
ecstatic. The idea of moving houses
seemed so cool that I never fully
processed the thought of leaving my
friends and departing to a new coun-
try. Looking back, the magnitude of
their decision was incomprehensible.
As I was approaching the end of
my military service, I started forming
the idea of returning to the United
States. I didn’
t exactly miss living
in America; after all, the amount
of independence I had as a fifth-
grader in Israel well exceeded most
American high schoolers. But I did
feel like my national service would
be left incomplete without closing a
personal circle. I felt that because I
was privileged with the gift of moving
to Israel, it was my responsibility to
eventually return and share my expe-
riences with a society that I naturally
connect to and, in an alternative real-
ity, would have been a part of. This
idea quickly came to fruition when I
assumed the position of Jewish stu-
dent life coordinator at the Lester &
Jewell Morris Hillel Jewish Student
Center at Michigan State University
in December 2018.
As this exciting news settled in, I sur-
prisingly found myself struggling with
the title Jewish student life coordinator.
Why Jewish? Why not just student life
coordinator? After all, isn’
t Hillel Jewish
by default? Had I joined the Hillel staff
at Tel Aviv University, would I have
received the same title? I’
m not sure.
In Israel, your Judaism is expressed
through the essence of your presence.
You don’
t need to keep kashrut, go
to shul on Shabbat, attend summer
camp or receive any type of religious
education. Rather you could head
out to the baseball diamond, attempt
to workout using the intimidating
beach facilities of Tel Aviv or even
just grab a beer at your local JEMS
pub and you would still be expressing
your Judaism through your presence
in Israel. This is because Israel acts
as an umbrella Jewish community by
default. It is made up of several com-
munities that are Jewish as a result of
all their members being Jewish, but
not necessarily because they are prac-
ticing Judaism. Therefore, by default,
these communities are defined as
“Jewish” communities.
So, is your presence in a “Jewish”
community enough? I believe so,
to the point that the event you are
attending can have no actual Jewish
context, but your communal presence
will still express your Judaism. This
is because presence alone is a funda-
mental contribution toward building
a thriving community.
An understanding of this concept
not only allows Hillel to open its
doors to students seeking a Jewish
experience but also to Jewish students
seeking a community experience
beyond religion. As for being a Jewish
student life coordinator, I’
ve conclud-
ed that it is just Jewish by default. ■
Eitan Moed is the Jewish Student Life
Coordinator at the Lester and Jewell Morris
Hillel Student Center at Michigan State
University and a contributor at Travelujah.
Eitan Moed
letters
Trump Bolsters
Anti-Semitism
Eugene Greenstein (Jan 3, page 6)
opines that Donald Trump is not an
anti-Semite. He might be correct, but
that is not the point.
The point is that Trump is a patho-
logical liar and a bully who insults
anyone who disagrees with him and
encourages physical violence against
his opponents. His statement that the
press is the enemy of the people is a
direct quote from fascist ideology. He
has yet to retract his statement tha
t
among the neo-Nazis there are some
“very fine individuals.”
It is these aspects of Trump’
s behav-
ior that both encourage and facilitate
overt anti-Semitism on the part of the
alt-right and the neo-Nazis. As report-
ed by the ADL, the number of anti-Se-
mitic episodes in the United States
increased by 57 percent in 2018.
Trump might not be an anti-Semite,
but his actions and his behavior have
without doubt encouraged anti-Sem-
itism both in the United States and in
other parts of the world.
— M. Jeffrey Maisels, MD
Southfield