12 | JUNE 15 • 2023
PURELY COMMENTARY
Student’s Corner
My Judaism
E
ver since I was old enough
to comprehend religion,
ethnicity and identity,
I embraced my connection to
Judaism and feminism. It was
not until I began high school
that I started to see
the intersection
between these
parts of my iden-
tity. Experiencing
something that
helped me to
understand the
many facets of
Judaism and the complex histo-
ry of feminism in America has
pushed me to connect and be
curious about these identities
more than I could’ve imagined as
a young child at Hebrew school.
I never considered myself a
religious person because I felt
more drawn to the culture and
community of Judaism and not
so much the history, Torah or
prayers. I attended my syna-
gogue’s weekend religious school
starting as a curious little kid with
a packed class of eager playful
toddlers, through being part of
just a handful in my high school
class. After the b’nai mitzvah sea-
son, parental pressure to attend
religious school eased up, and the
size of my religious school classes
began to shrink. By 11th grade,
my class was down to three: my
good friend, another peer and I.
This class size was disappoint-
ing at first. I feared intimacy. I
feared being put on the spot and
having to answer questions about
the Torah that I could not answer.
I feared that the teacher would
not be engaging or passionate. I
feared losing the social aspect of
the religious school I cherished
the most.
Sunday evenings came and
went, and before I knew it, the
class I initially dreaded finally
arrived. Before the class started, I
knew it would not be so bad after
my teacher stated this would not
be like any of our past experienc-
es in that building — an intrigu-
ing statement. She shared how we
would be making the class our
own, talking about what we want-
ed to learn about and reading
stories from the Torah that made
her question her Judaism, stories
that had been excluded from our
Reform Jewish curriculum, and
stories that highlighted Jewish
women with an agency we had
never heard before.
As she spoke, I forgot every-
thing I feared about this class. I
was excited to attend religious
school each week and could not
wait to tell anybody who would
listen about the stories we dissect-
ed in that class.
The intimacy of the class pro-
vided us with the space to ask
questions and have controversial
conversations. Though I was
often put on the spot to answer
questions and seldom knew the
answers, I was not stuck with
the predicted embarrassment
— instead, curiosity and new
knowledge. Our teacher was the
most passionate religious educa-
tor I have ever had. She made for
an experience that would forever
impact my Jewish identity. Each
week she — a retired professor
— wore a turtleneck and a bright
yellow vest as she rode her bike
to class in any weather. She didn’t
laugh much or share about her
personal life, but it didn’t matter
because she provided us with wis-
dom and perspective. She encour-
aged us to challenge her angle and
the stories we learned about and
named our rights as Reform Jews
to question and challenge.
Over the past two years, I have
been a fellow in a Jewish feminist
fellowship. In this, we discuss
activism, Judaism, feminism and
how they connect. We question
each other, our Judaism, differ-
ent pieces of activism and social
change, and we use those ques-
tions to better ourselves and our
understanding of the faith that
we hold dear to us. Last spring, I
spent a weekend with this fellow-
ship on Jewish sleep-away camp-
grounds. We sang, discussed,
prayed, took apart traditional
prayers to understand them in a
new light, wrote op-eds, laughed,
cried and made plans for actions
to make feminist, Jewish change.
I remember waiting for our
bus with other fellows and feel-
ing connected to many strangers
whom I had never met. It felt so
Jewish to me. Throughout this
weekend, I felt more connected
to my religion than I had ever felt
before. It reminded me of how I
felt in that class, it was a full-circle
moment because the class had
expanded my Jewish religious and
intellectual identity, but this fel-
lowship and retreat enhanced my
Jewish identity regarding culture
and social and emotional identity.
I now identify as a religious
person. Through these two expe-
riences, I have redefined what
it means to me to be a religious
person. Many community-based
aspects of Judaism certainly
impact many Jews and their con-
nection to the religion, but each
person’s internal relationship with
the Torah, the history of our faith
and what it means to be Jewish,
is a decision and journey of their
own.
Avivah Mitchel attends Skyline High
School (Ann Arbor). This essay was the
first-place award winner in National
Council of Jewish Women, Michigan’s
Jewish Youth Awards. The essay topic
was “What experience or person has
had the greatest impact on your Jewish
identity?”
Avivah
Mitchel
Gov. Kathy Hochul can
begin by enforcing Executive
Order No. 157 and set
in motion the process of
ending public funding of
CUNY due to its support for
BDS. The state could also
dissolve CUNY and merge it
with the State University of
New York (SUNY), enabling
a more trusted academic
administration, such as that
of SUNY Binghamton, to
deal properly with systemic
antisemitism.
As of now, no one in
the federal government
has specifically called out
Mohammed’s hate speech
or CUNY in general. The
special envoy to monitor and
combat antisemitism issued
a non-specific tweet on June
2. It said only that targeting
Jews because of their beliefs
and identity or singling
out Israel in a hateful
manner is antisemitism
and unacceptable. This is
insufficient.
If the government fails to
act with firm and decisive
resolve on this issue and
appoint a federal monitor,
it will fail the first test of
its own plan to combat
antisemitism. It cannot
afford to do this.
Failure will only
encourage the further
institutionalization of Jew-
hatred, not only at CUNY
but in American society in
general.
Farley Weiss is chairman of the
Israel Heritage Foundation (IHF) and
former president of the National
Council of Young Israel. Leonard
Greunstein Grunstein founded
Project Ezrah and serves on the
Board of Revel at Yeshiva University
and the AIPAC National Council.
THE BIDEN
ADMINISTRATION MUST
ACT AGAINST CUNY
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