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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 experience definitely changed the type of business I want to do and the type of people I want to work with and what kind of organization and company I want to work with. It's definitely given me a target of where I want to go when I get older.
When I read about [Jewish] history, when I talk to different people who have been through so many different persecutions, it’s just so amazing to me that we’re still here. We are such a tiny minority, but we’re so resilient and so strong.
“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.
I didn’t come to college with the mindset of, “Oh, time to convert to Judaism.” That wasn’t on my agenda. But, I do credit a lot of the Rutgers Hillel staff and the student board for the work they did to make Hillel such a pluralistic and accessible space for people like me.
I got an email from GW Hillel saying, 'Come join us in our vaccine efforts,' so I emailed the people that run it and the JCC and Hillel. I previously worked for Joe Biden's campaign on the Voter Protection Team in Florida, so I had that experience with the managerial side of this and told them I wanted to work with them.
I am a disabled, queer Jew with invisible disabilities such as ADHD—and I have faced a lot of challenges and successes with my identity. I struggled a lot with self-acceptance and finding a balance between my Judaism and two other identities that aren't often discussed in the Jewish community.
I felt like ‘Oh my God there's so many Jewish people that are in the States and they live such a different life and they have so much to say and I don’t know anything about it and I love my people,’ you know? I feel like we are one.
I’ve been thinking a lot about how Purim commemorates the survival of Jews who were marked for death. How many of us have felt that ominous shadow hanging over us, over our communities this last year? There were times when we thought anyone who went outside was asking to get sick and die.
