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Being a Jew of Color always puts me in an interesting place. In my experience, when people think about Jews, they think about white Europeans, but there are a bunch of Ashkenazi Jews like me who aren’t always counted or represented. There may not be many of me in the world, but that doesn’t mean I don’t exist.
The place that I've gotten to do a lot of my own personal passion projects in college has been Hillel. It's made me more of an active Jew, to see Judaism more as doing things for other people, with other people, than just an individual practice.
I’ve really connected to Judaism through music. I play the guitar, drums, and trumpet and so music is something I really love. My first time at Hillel, everyone was singing Salaam. I thought it was a very nice song, but I didn’t know how to sing it or play it. Nowadays, I probably know more music and songs than my other Jewish friends.
“My first Hillel dinner at school was when I was a prospective student. My host’s name was Dana, and she, along with the people I met that weekend, are the reason I’m here. From the moment I stepped into the admissions building to check-in, I felt welcomed and loved, and it continued throughout the rest […]
Music has always gone hand in hand with my Jewish identity. I’m a classical singer, and over the last couple of years, I’ve been adding Jewish repertoire to my list. Some of it comes from liturgical sources, but I’ve also been singing in Yiddish a little bit. Hebrew and Yiddish music is informing a lot of my thesis studies.
There’s this perception, largely accurate, that college kids are not particularly observant. I was really concerned about finding a synagogue that could be a home for me and some type of observant community at school. I was worried I was going to be left out or stuck on my own on Shabbos.
“I got involved in Hillel during my freshman year, and through Hillel I signed up for a Pesach-themed Zoom event called “Let My People Flow,” which was a yoga class led by Evan Joblin."
“Voting is a mitzvah. To help others fulfill that mitzvah, I became the first Mitzvote civic engagement intern at Franklin and Marshall Hillel.”
“My name is Octavio, but people call me Tavo.”
“Being Jewish and Latino are central parts of who I am.”
