PERSONAL ANECDOTE
I would now like to explain why this topic is both important and relevant to me. Well, for starters, I am Jewish, I attend college in the United States, and I consider myself to be secular. One of the major reasons I chose to research this topic is that it would allow me to explore my own life and examine the reasons as to why I am a secular Jewish college student.
From a very young age, I knew that I was Jewish. Every year, my family and I would celebrate the Jewish holidays together- Passover, Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, and Hanukkah. However, we never went to temple, except for one of my cousin's bar/bat mitzvah services. I found all of this to be very exciting, but I was not sure why we celebrated these things. Although my parents did not formally educate me on the Jewish religion, they decided to send me to Hebrew School at the age of 7.
I enjoyed it. I was surrounded by many of my peers, and I learned many things such as the Hebrew alphabet, how to spin a dreidel, and where my ancestors came from. However, once the fun activities ended, I could not stand to be there. I hated learning about my religion- the teachers were rude, I found the subject to be boring, and I hated the fact that I was required to keep kosher.
By the age of 9, my parents realized that Hebrew School and I did not get along very well. So I decided to stop attending. Thus, my Jewish education ended before I graduated from the 4th grade. Almost ten years have passed since then, and I have forgotten a lot of the information I learned there.
By the time I was 12, my friends started to talk about their upcoming bar/bat mitzvahs- they had almost finished Hebrew School and were beginning to plan their coming of age ceremonies. At first, I did not want one- it was a religious ceremony, and I wanted nothing to do with that. Then, I realized that because I am still Jewish, and that celebration is a part of my culture, I should have one. So I did.
Rather than preparing for it with a formal Hebrew School education, I had a tutor teach me my Torah portion that I would be required to perform at the bar mitzvah service. While I was successfully able to do this, I look back six years later and realize that the whole thing was pointless- I understood its importance from a cultural standpoint, but not from a religious standpoint.
Overall, I believe that my secularism spawns from my childhood. Because I was never taught the importance of my religion from a young age, I never learned to appreciate it as I became older. Had my parents taught me more about Judaism, or had I completed Hebrew School, things may have been different. However, I still feel very connected to Judaism as a cultural group- I grew up in Plainview, New York, which has a large Jewish population. While some residents are Orthodox, many of them are secular, like my family. Even though I am not religious, I know that I will want to raise my future family in a neighborhood that is culturally Jewish, because that is where I feel at home.
From a very young age, I knew that I was Jewish. Every year, my family and I would celebrate the Jewish holidays together- Passover, Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, and Hanukkah. However, we never went to temple, except for one of my cousin's bar/bat mitzvah services. I found all of this to be very exciting, but I was not sure why we celebrated these things. Although my parents did not formally educate me on the Jewish religion, they decided to send me to Hebrew School at the age of 7.
I enjoyed it. I was surrounded by many of my peers, and I learned many things such as the Hebrew alphabet, how to spin a dreidel, and where my ancestors came from. However, once the fun activities ended, I could not stand to be there. I hated learning about my religion- the teachers were rude, I found the subject to be boring, and I hated the fact that I was required to keep kosher.
By the age of 9, my parents realized that Hebrew School and I did not get along very well. So I decided to stop attending. Thus, my Jewish education ended before I graduated from the 4th grade. Almost ten years have passed since then, and I have forgotten a lot of the information I learned there.
By the time I was 12, my friends started to talk about their upcoming bar/bat mitzvahs- they had almost finished Hebrew School and were beginning to plan their coming of age ceremonies. At first, I did not want one- it was a religious ceremony, and I wanted nothing to do with that. Then, I realized that because I am still Jewish, and that celebration is a part of my culture, I should have one. So I did.
Rather than preparing for it with a formal Hebrew School education, I had a tutor teach me my Torah portion that I would be required to perform at the bar mitzvah service. While I was successfully able to do this, I look back six years later and realize that the whole thing was pointless- I understood its importance from a cultural standpoint, but not from a religious standpoint.
Overall, I believe that my secularism spawns from my childhood. Because I was never taught the importance of my religion from a young age, I never learned to appreciate it as I became older. Had my parents taught me more about Judaism, or had I completed Hebrew School, things may have been different. However, I still feel very connected to Judaism as a cultural group- I grew up in Plainview, New York, which has a large Jewish population. While some residents are Orthodox, many of them are secular, like my family. Even though I am not religious, I know that I will want to raise my future family in a neighborhood that is culturally Jewish, because that is where I feel at home.