Dear Being Jewish

I’m not sure I know anything else. I have always been Jewish. It has meant a variety of things to me over the years, from being a bummer because Hebrew School got in the way of playing basketball in 7th grade, to a sense of belonging. I never learned much about mystical Judaism, nor the Slavic pagan history, yet finding a bit of time to explore that now. Yet, while my religion offered me a sense of belonging in quite a variety of ways throughout my life, today I find myself afraid. Just a few days ago, I was navigating a bit of a tense situation with a neighbor (consistently parking in my driveway spot) and being angry at me for asking him not to. His name was Arabic, and he was quite angry and told me so, and I was praying that he didn’t know I lived alone or that I was Jewish. I have desperately sad since then. To me being Jewish means I can talk to others about our upbringing, liking lox and bagels, and chopped liver, suffering through the same holidays, etc. It’s not that deep. Yet, especially now, people consistently want to find ways to hate us.