10 | APRIL 21 • 2022 

student corner
How Do You Represent Judaism?
W

hen I was 9, I wore 
a Star of David 
necklace. It was 
a nice necklace, and I wore it 
everywhere, even when I went 
to the park. I did 
have an interest-
ing experience 
with it once. 
 I had been 
playing on the 
swings when 
a girl came up 
to me. She told 
me my necklace was pretty. 
I said thank you, then she 
asked what it was. This ques-
tion confused me because 
I thought everyone knew 
what it was. After I finished 
explaining my necklace, she 
asked me what it meant to be 
Jewish. 
The question made me 
pause. I had attended Jewish 
schools my entire life, and I 

was unable to immediately 
respond. I tried my best, and 
despite not knowing how to 
explain it well, I think I did a 
decent job. 
 Sometimes when I wear a 
Star of David today, I think 
back to that time at the park. 
Since then, I have learned to 
explain Judaism to anyone 
who wants to know more. It’s 
hard to be the first Jewish per-
son someone has met because 
sometimes they ask very 
broad or difficult questions. 
When I explain Judaism to 
someone, I think of a phrase I 
have heard, “you don’t have to 
explain your identity to any-
one.” However, I disagree with 
that statement. 
Despite how many incred-
ible and accomplished Jews 
there are, many people do 
not know what it means to 
be Jewish. I always try my 

best to explain to people what 
Judaism is, and I hope that 
other Jews will too. It is our 
responsibility to teach others 
about Judaism. 
People can make assump-
tions or hear misinformation 
and assume those are facts. 
After all, we only make up less 
than 1% of the people in the 
world. The Jewish people are 
such a small group that it is 
the job of each of us to rep-
resent Judaism. This doesn’t 
mean we have to wear a par-
ticular item or be perfect Jews, 
but we have to know who we 
are. 
So, how do we represent 
Judaism? We can do this by 
sharing our culture and tradi-
tions. Sometimes explaining 
why you participate in par-
ticular customs can make a 
world of difference in under-
standing. When a friend 

asked what Rosh Hashanah 
was, I explained that it was 
the Jewish New Year, what it 
meant to me, and I let her try 
some apples and honey. She 
liked the taste, and she went 
home with the knowledge 
of what it was. Hopefully, if 
someone else does not know 
what Rosh Hashanah is, she 
can now explain it to them. 
The more we represent 
Judaism and share it, the less 
stigmatized our practices and 
beliefs become. It feels great 
when a non-Jew understands 
why I can’t be at an event 
because of Shabbat or a hol-
iday. Representation leads to 
understanding and empathy 
from the rest of the world. It is 
vital to our survival and pros-
perity as a people. 

Rebecca Chynoweth is a senior at 

Frankel Jewish Academy.

Rebecca 
Chynoweth

PURELY COMMENTARY

FEAR TERRORISM continued from page 6

sighing at each other’s com-
ments, was that the specifics 
were irrelevant.
Such an attitude, though 
far less rampant in Israel 
than the far-left would have 
one believe, provides fodder 
for the foreign press. This is 
not to say that publications 
like the Guardian and the 
New York Times need any 
help crafting headlines and 
concocting news stories that 
completely distort reality. 
But it sheds light on the ten-
dency of Israeli liberals, like 
their counterparts abroad, to 
place blame where it doesn’t 
belong.
Unable, as an eavesdrop-
per, to set the record straight 
in real time, I am taking the 
opportunity to do so here 

for anyone who has a simi-
larly false sense of the above 
events.

THE FIRST INCIDENT
Let’s start with the first 
instance, which took place 
at a makeshift checkpoint. 
Widowed mother-of-six 
Ghada Ibrahim Ali Sabateen 
charged at Israel Defense 
Forces soldiers in a suspicious 

manner and refused their 
order to halt. Following stan-
dard procedure, the soldiers 
first shot in the air. When 
Sabateen ignored the com-
mand, they shot her in the leg.
As soon as she fell to the 
ground, the soldiers admin-
istered first aid and called 
an ambulance. Palestinian 
medics quickly arrived and 
rushed her to the Al-Hussein 

Governmental Hospital in 
nearby Beit Jala, where she 
died of blood loss from a 
torn artery in her thigh.
If anything, this incident 
illustrates the care that the 
IDF troops took to avoid 
killing Sabateen, whose 
behavior indicated that she 
was seeking to die that after-
noon as a “martyr,” rather 
than by suicide due to deep 
emotional problems. Now 
her family is eligible for a 
hefty monthly stipend from 
the P.A.

THE SECOND CASE
The second tragedy in ques-
tion was equally unavoidable. 
Though it would subsequently 
emerge that the victim was not 

“IT’S THE JIHADISTS WHO 
SHOULD BE FEARED, NOT 
THE MEN AND WOMEN IN 
 UNIFORM — OR JEANS — 

DEFENDING AGAINST THEM.”

