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“Originally, my view on religion was fairly negative. In large part, this is just because neither of my parents are religious. They’re both atheists. And my mom experienced heavy religious trauma when she was growing up, and that influenced my perception of religion.  But, when I turned 12, and was in middle school, people at… read more

“Growing up, I didn’t consider myself Jewish beyond the idea that I was a ‘Jew’, and I saw it kind of as a negative thing. But Judaism is a really beautiful part of my life now, and a lot of that comes from connecting with my family and with the community and practicing traditions that… read more

“Growing up I struggled with identity. My dad is Mexican, and my mom is White and Jewish, so I never really knew how to identify. But now I think holding both of these identities is very special. This mindset shift is in part because of my gap year program in Israel, where I lived on… read more

“Fall of 2020, everything was online, so I worked in Israel that year, where I was a counselor on a conservative Jewish gap year program called Nativ. And that was really a change of pace from anything I had done because I had always been in Orthodox institutions. Growing up, I was always the super… read more