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 
continued from page 10

