My Jewish Identity

Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, occurred last week and Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, begins on Friday evening. This is the High Holiday season, a time of celebration, and also a time of repentance and reflection. While sitting in synagogue last week, I did a bit of reflecting. I realized that these were the Jewish activities I participated in over the past year:

- Attended Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur services;
- Lit Hanukkah candles and occasionally Shabbat candles;
- Participated in Passover Seders and ate matzo for eight days; and
- Gave a little money to charity.

I think that’s about it. Growing up, I was extremely active in a Jewish youth group, attended a Jewish day school and Sunday school as well as Pittsburgh’s School of Advanced Jewish Studies (I even got some college credits for this!) and spent a significant amount of time at the Jewish Community Center and its camps. I even worked for a Jewish organization professionally for four years. So how did I get to where I am now?

I’m at an odd age in the Jewish community. I don’t need a Jewish singles group and am too old to participate in activities for young professionals. Conversely, I don’t have kids so participating in family activities would be a bit creepy. Therefore, I really don’t have a community. We’ve thought about joining a synagogue but that doesn’t make sense for us. It’s fairly expensive to join, and, as illustrated above, wouldn’t really fit our needs.

I’m not going to make any type of New Year’s resolutions here. Yes, I want and need to do more this year than last year, but it needs to be meaningful. I definitely must give/perform more tzedakah this year. As for what’s next or what specifically I plan to do, I just don’t know. I’ll figure it out but thought I would share my thoughts here with you.

Anyway, thanks for reading. We’ll now return to my regular nonsensical posts.