6 January 24 • 2019
jn

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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

