8 April 25 • 2019 jn letters views T hroughout life, change is inevitable. Sometimes change comes smoothly and naturally, and other times change comes with various challenges. Some changes are positive, some are negative, and others are neutral. Life is all about changes because that’ s how we grow. Can you imagine if we never changed from the day we were born? We’ d all be infants! Change can be hard, but nothing is harder than staying in a place you have outgrown. Change can be extremely uncomfortable because often you must take chances and give up certain things. Last summer, I experienced my final summer as a camper. I had a difficult time at camp because I was experiencing internal challenges — namely, I was changing. Since the age of 7, going back to camp every sum- mer was a given. I went to school and then I went to camp. I spent my difficult moments at school looking forward to how happy I would be at camp. It was where most of my daydreams took place. It was my haven. I will be forever grateful that I was able to spend nine consecutive summers there. Even though I struggled at camp last sum- mer, I never questioned not going back the following summer for the coveted CIT year. Yet, I could not figure out why I was having such a hard time having fun. Camp was exactly the same — it had not changed. However, I felt my camp friendships shift- ing. I felt myself disconnecting from activities I once loved. I couldn’ t figure out what was happening to me. It wasn’ t until I came home that I felt how profound this change was. I was sad; I was confused. I was grieving for the best senior camper summer that never was. The week between camp and school was the hardest week of my life. I experienced countless emo- tions and, at the same time, I had a ton of summer homework to complete. I was almost grieving my camp summers. It felt like the end of an era. I spent hours crying, feeling depressed and angry. Everything felt so different. I didn’ t recognize this “me” that felt differently about the place I spent nine years loving. My dream of having the best summer was defeated. I did not yet understand that I was in the midst of changing and growing, and that sometimes change and growth involve pain. It was by some sort of miracle that I was able to complete my homework. I spent my last week of summer feeling miserable, taking notes on history while riding the jarring and confusing waves of change. As I started school, I slowly began to feel better. I wrote in my journal; I spoke with a few trusted adults; I made music playlists that soothed my soul. I allowed my changes to integrate inside of me. To this day, I continue to improve, and this year has been one of the best years of my life. One of my core values is staying true to myself, and this year I have been myself more than ever. As time goes on, I realize more definitively that my needs have changed. Usually during the school year I craved an escape, which was camp for me. This year I find myself much happier in the present moment. I find myself wanting a different kind of summer, one that involves seeing new places, traveling, learning and spending time with family. Although I still love camp and I may go back as a counselor one day, my own personal needs have changed. I have changed. I will spend this next summer living out- side of my comfort zone. Although my nine years at camp have provided me with so much growth and with so many irreplaceable experiences, and I am forever grateful, I look forward to this summer of change. The next time I feel sad and confused about why a constant in my life suddenly feels drastically different, it’ s probably me. It’ s my soul telling me it’ s time to step out of my comfort zone. Life is all about growth and change and learning how to ride those waves. And of all the life lessons that I learned at camp, this one may be the most important. ■ Jillian Lesson is a 10th-grader at Frankel Jewish Academy and a contributor to thejewishnews.com. She is the daughter of Lauren and Randy Lesson, and the younger sister to Josh and Corey. She also is one of the JN’ s inaugural Rising Stars. See the story on page 10. from JN online Riding the Waves of Change Jillian Lesson Online Comments Readers responded online to last week’ s cover story on innovations at area religious schools. Gail Nachman Greenberg: Proud to share the innova- tions happening at Temple Kol Ami! Thank you for a beautiful article! Marcie Bensman: My son is in the Temple Israel high school program and he’ s having a blast. He gets to pick electives and, this semester, he picked an art class and has made some incredible pieces. I even told him how much better it is then when I was in religious school. Kudos on a good job, TI! Suzan Kass Tepman: Adat Shalom also has an incredible Hebrew school program! Jennifer Sima Ostroff: Partners in Torah is creating an amazing learning space on Tuesdays. My kids ask to go — even my teenager. Steven Podvoll: Thanks for recognizing several innovative programs in our community. But I’ m a bit surprised by no mention of Temple Israel’ s program, which now has to rent class space from local pub- lic schools. Editor’ s Note: Look for a follow-up story on inno- vative programs at other congregational schools in the next few weeks. The JN welcomes comments online at thejewishnews.com or on its Facebook page. Letters can be sent to letters@renmedia.us. Hypothesis — today’ s prevailing doctrine, originated by anti-Semitic 19th-century German academics, that the Bible is just a messy assemblage of different people’ s texts eventually clumsily “redacted” into one text that calls Azazel a demon. Probably the Jewish people’ s biggest problem today is that we mostly no longer think of ourselves as being a holy people. A big reason for that, I think, are teachings like this, that make the Torah seem ridic- ulous. Choosing between two interpretations of Torah, one making sense and the other obviously pagan, barbaric and absurd, let’ s go with the one that makes sense. We owe the Torah the benefit of the doubt, not the denigrating pseudo-science of the Documentary Hypothesis. — Michael Dallen Detroit Trump Spouts Half-Truths It was a great day for affluent America Jewry on April 6 when President Donald Trump addressed the annual Republican Jewish Coalition (RJC) in Las Vegas. These individuals deserved the honor. They lived the American dream, made lots of money and gained enormous status while fighting and tolerating the overt and covert anti-Semitic barriers thrown in front of them. Just think of how great the day would have been and how swollen the ranks of the RJC would have been if the U.S. government in 1939 had allowed the German passenger ship St. Louis to deposit its human cargo of 937 Jews fleeing persecution at the hands of the Nazis on American shores? Yet, for some reason, the United States, with its huge statute sitting in New York Harbor begging the world to give us the people they don’ t want, said, “Sorry, folks, we’ re closed for business; we don’ t want your people either.” Trump hurled his bewildering volley of half-truths, anger and hate at the smug conventioneers, and they ate it up, shouting “four more years.” But the last straw, for me at least, was when he told the cheering crowd that the U.S. borders are now closed to immigrants. Have these people sunk so low? Now that they have gotten theirs, they believe they can walk away from everyone else? That is not the Jewish credo that I was raised in. But, for Jews, this game is far from over. Sure, Trump pats himself on the back for doing the legally and morally questionable things of messing around with maps in the Middle East to satisfy them. But when a gunman kills Jews in Pittsburgh and Nazis march in Charlottesville; and Trump stands quiet and cowardly before our centuries-old enemies, then this battle is far from over, or even won. — Steve Raphael Bloomfield Hills continued from page 5