Nicky Young
June 13, 2010
Being a member of The City Congregation suits me. I only have Kid School every other week which is awesome. Also, my dad is not Jewish so my mother found a congregation that would focus on the human aspects of Judaism and religion. I think that this human aspect should be the core principal of every religion. Because my congregation’s Bar and Bat mitzvahs aren’t based in the actual religious aspect of Judaism, I think I’ve been freer to think and expand on my ideas. Of course, that isn’t to say that my friends who go to more traditional Hebrew Schools aren’t capable of thinking their own ideas.
Writing the papers for my Bar Mitzvah was seriously one of the hardest things I’ve done. There were many times that I wanted to stop preparing for my bar-mitzvah. But I learned a lot about my family and I got a chance to have conversations with the elders in my family about where I came from.
I felt really good that my Yeh-Yeh trusted me enough to tell me his story because it was a really hard story. Thank you, Yeh Yeh. I remember thinking that it must have been really tough for my Mah-Mah to have her house destroyed twice and to have to move to America during high school. I’m glad I had the chance to interview her before she got sick. Talking to my maternal grandparents made me think about how I have always taken choice for granted and how it’s the choices I get every day that make me a free thinking individual. Thanks Grandma and Grandpa.
My final project connected me to my Jewish culture, history and identity. As I celebrate this rite of passage from child to adult, I wanted to make my own connections to my heritage.
This bar mitzvah also gave me some opportunities that I never had before. I’ve never really thought too deeply about the subject of my religious views before. I just accepted that I go to Jewish Kid School, and celebrate both Jewish and Christian holidays. My major paper gave me the chance to dig deep and think about what I’d like to do with my religious life. Also, I never would have had the really deep talk I had with Aunt Irene. While I’ve known her for a long time I’ve never had a long talk with her. I spent an hour talking to her about her religious views and just her views about life.
I also got to meet Rabbi Bellino and talk to him. I had never talked to an orthodox rabbi before, let alone go to an orthodox Shabbat service, and the experience was amazing. When I went to the service there were about 15 guys and 1 woman who had to sit in the back. Besides the separation of the sexes, the overwhelming sense of community there was amazing; I might even want to go back. Talking with Rabbi Peter was also a great opportunity. By meeting with him I really tightened up my paper, and learned a lot about my portion. In fact most of the factual stuff in my major paper either came from him or was something he told me to research more. Thank you, Rabbi Peter.
I think that the biggest thing I started to think about throughout this process is what I want to do religiously after my bar mitzvah and into my adult life.
I was having a conversation with a friend who just had her Bat Mitzvah. We were talking about how I was going to be a Bar mitzvah if I don’t necessarily believe in “God”. I told her that religion itself makes no sense to me but I want to see how different religious views can make me a better person. No religion is right so why not gather views from all of them? She thinks it’s cool that people can so strongly dedicate themselves to religion. I think you can become restricted by religion but when I went to the orthodox service I was amazed by the sense of community there. All these people came to this place just to pray together. I would like to go to a bunch of different religious ‘meetings’ just to explore all the good and bad I can from religions. That’s the only way a person can come even close to understanding people and the world we live in.
My friend and I agreed that it’s hard to pick just one religion. I’m going to be a wandering religious person. If I see a cool service or gathering, I’d like to poke my head in to see what’s going on and just observe. I’d like to go to Muslim services, Christian services, Jewish services, and any other kind of religious service if it seems interesting.
Thank you to all my friends and family for coming today. I especially want to thank Rabbi Peter, Isabel and my mentor Jane for helping me revise and edit all my papers multiple times, Aram,for the music today, My uncle Andy for introducing me to Rabbi Bellino, Rabbi Bellino for letting me participate in a service and having a discussion with me that I can never duplicate, my aunt Irene for also having a discussion with me that I can never forget, and to my family. They all had to deal with me and I’m really thankful that my sister Anna helped me with my community service. Also to my mom for painstakingly helping me write my papers and my dad for being so supportive and open to the Jewish world and for organizing my party. Thanks again to everyone who came to celebrate this day with me.
