Growing up, I always felt normal. My preschool was at a temple, I went to a once a week two hour Hebrew school as I grew up, and I attended several bar and bat mitzvah’s during middle school. I learned about Jewish history and (attempted) to learn Hebrew and never felt like anything was out of the ordinary. I felt like everyone else. As I grew up back home, I really didn’t think there was anything special about being Jewish. My non-Jewish friends cracked a joke every once in a while, but it was always something that seemed normal.
When I came up to Boise, I knew this was not a Jewish community and I would probably not find many others who were Jewish, but that didn’t matter to me. School started, and I ended up finding a few people who were Jewish when I joined my sorority. That made me excited, but that excitement quickly died down again. Things continued on, and I didn’t think much about my Jewish heritage as I got busy with school.
During my sophomore and junior year, I started dating someone. He was my first serious boyfriend and I thought we had a great relationship. He knew I was Jewish, and in the beginning, he would crack some jokes about me being Jewish. I didn’t mind, but as our relationship progressed, his jokes also progressed. I distinctly remember one night, he and his roommate were sitting around looking up Jewish jokes on their phone. After this night, when he made jokes they came in bunches. This started to take its toll, and after I politely asked him to stop, he wouldn’t. Looking back, I should have made this a bigger deal, but I didn’t, and we ended up breaking up anyways.
Even with the jokes, I realized that being Jewish was not normal for most. After being away from the people that made me feel normal, I finally was able to find a passion for my religion and appreciate the fact that my parents had me learn about my religion early on. I may not have learned Hebrew, but I know several prayers, which is something I hold onto while I’m away from my Jewish family and friends. My interest for my religion has finally grown into something I want to pursue more and study more, and it took me moving to Boise to find that spark.