Why Israel? Why synagogues? Why Jewish life celebrations such as baby namings, B'nai Mitzvah, weddings? In "Fiddler on the Roof," Tevye famously said: "Tradition!" To which I'll say, "Yes, and …" Nostalgia is an excellent reason to maintain one's Jewish identity through positive acts of affirmation, but nostalgia alone is not adequate. Carrying forward the traditions of our grandparents provides a wonderful link to the Jewish past. However, the classic stories of how each generation forgets (and intentionally changes) just a little bit more of the practices of the previous generation reveals that nostalgia is an imperfect perpetuator of Jewish identity. Some Jews also affirm their Jewishness as an act of defiance—a response to antisemitism—whether current or in light of the Holocaust. This risks placing the parameters of our identity in the hands of others if we fail to develop positive reasons, as well. Hitler declared that having a Jewish grandparent made one a [...]

What makes you Jewish? My friend, Rabbi Adam Naftalin-Kelman (Hillel Director at the University of California, Berkeley) said that the Jews are best described as an עַם "Am"—pronounced "ahm" and best translated as “a people.” Why an Am? We are not merely an ethnicity. In fact, we are a multiplicity of identities. Jews are Ashkenazi, Mizrahi, Sephardi, Persian, Indian, Moroccan, Syrian, Russian, Israeli, and so on. Each of these complex identities captures a unique expression of Jewishness. Each is unique enough so that they can be stereotyped and qualified by another of the Jewish ethnicities. When my German-Jewish grandparents settled in Charlotte, N.C., the assimilated Southern Jews saw them as outsiders and were slow to welcome them into the community. And yet, despite the ethnic differences, we still see each other as fellow Jews. Many Jews say that it's Jewish values that connect us, but certainly in these times, we [...]

What makes you Jewish? The painful reality of antisemitism is that it often pushes Jews inward. That is, when we feel threatened, we turn to our communities for strength and support. In the past, when Israel was threatened, or even decades earlier, when the Nazis were ascendent in Germany, Jews came to synagogues or gathered for mass rallies. Rabbi Stephen Wise famously convened a gathering of thousands at Madison Square Garden to protest against Nazi Germany. These times are different. We turn to social media to express our anxieties, seek wisdom, and find other Jews. Given recent events, I expected larger crowds at synagogue, but that has not been the case. Why has our response in 2022 been so different from that in the past? One explanation, perhaps, is that our own personal Jewish story doesn’t include accounts of connection to the Jewish community. Sure, we have Jewish friends, eat Jewish [...]

As I recently walked with my friend, Rabbi Adam Naftalin-Kelman—the Hillel Director at the University of California, Berkeley—we processed the challenges of our time with respect to Jewish life. Confronted with antisemitism, hostility to Israel, rifts within our own community, and a concurrent diminution of Jewish engagement, we Jewish professionals have much to consider. At the same time, Jews have never had it so good: We are solidly established in the U.S. with substantial representation (well beyond our proportions) in academia, government, and business. The intermarriage rate alone points to the truth that we are so much a part of the fabric of American life that religious mixing is far from an aberration; it’s become the norm. As we crested the hill along Casiano Road, Adam turned to me and said: “When I speak to students at Cal, they acknowledge proudly that they are Jewish, but can’t really define [...]