6 | DECEMBER 22 • 2022 

1942 - 2022

Covering and Connecting 
Jewish Detroit Every Week

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DETROIT JEWISH NEWS 
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people of greater Detroit and beyond, and the State of Israel.

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Detroit Jewish community, reflecting the diverse views and interests of the Jewish community while advancing the 
morale and spirit of the community and advocating Jewish unity, identity and continuity.

DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
32255 Northwestern Hwy. Suite 205,
Farmington Hills, MI 48334
248-354-6060
thejewishnews.com

 
 
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The Detroit Jewish 
News Foundation

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student’s corner
Finding My Connection to Judaism
B

efore I could compre-
hend my own existence, 
I was told there was 
another being, a non-human 
being, that was responsible for 
every aspect of 
my life. This idea 
of Judaism and 
God has been 
instilled in me 
for as long as I 
can remember. I 
never had a rea-
son to question 
anything I was being taught 
because I had never seen any-
one around me do it, so why 
would I?
I grew up immersed in 
the ideas of Judaism. Jewish 
preschool, Jewish camp, Jewish 
day school; every religious 
thought I had ever conjured 
had been influenced by so 
many differing perspectives. It 
was not until my freshman year 
of high school that I began to 

comprehend Judaism through 
my own perspective. My whole 
life I thought I had to have 
the same opinions regarding 
Judaism as my teachers and 
rabbis did. I had never thought 
to start analyzing everything I 
knew in a new way to help me 
connect more to my religion 
that was not as strongly 
centered around biblical 
storytelling in the Torah. 
Every year at Yom Kippur 
services is when I feel I could 
see my own perspectives in 
Judaism the most. Since I 
was 13, I’ve read a portion 
of the Torah at Yom Kippur 
services every year at Adat 
Shalom Synagogue in front 
of hundreds of people. While 
the congregants are looking to 
gain a religious experience, I 
was so focused on not messing 
up that I failed to connect 
to the meaning behind my 
actions. Part of this was because 

the idea of messing up felt 
uncomfortable and slightly 
disrespectful. 
The other reason is that 
reading from the Torah 
has always been a religious 
experience that I struggled to 
connect with. From the first 
time I learned how to read 
Torah in fifth grade till now, 
I do not think I was able to 
connect to the experience the 
way many others do. I have 
been learning different parts 
of the Torah in school since 
I was very young, but it was 
always hard for me to apply 
those lessons to my current life, 
so at times I gave up trying to 
create meaning and instead just 
focused on the other parts of 
Judaism I strongly resonated 
with such as holidays and the 
tight-knit community. 
However, I realized that after 
so many years of reading the 
same portion I could not keep 

continuing to do it if I was 
not going to try to generate a 
religious connection because 
if I did not, then I knew I was 
doing it for the wrong reasons. 
I finally realized that in order 
to be Jewish you do not have 
to completely agree with every 
aspect of the religion and the 
concrete beliefs about God. 
Reading Torah did not have to 
be about the active words I was 
saying, but it could be about the 
connection to my family sitting 
in the congregation. It could be 
about the memories I had from 
reading Torah in middle school 
and at camp. It could be about 
my excitement for the holidays 
and my favorite traditions. 
What had felt powerless to 
me for a long time was now an 
opportunity to gain even more 
meaning in my life. 

Allison Feldman is a senior at Frankel 

Jewish Academy.

PURELY COMMENTARY

Allison 
Feldman

