An Honest Take on the Jewish Experience

By Talia Barsheshet

Being Jewish in the 21st century is more complex than I ever anticipated. I just thought I could go through life happily eating poppy seed bagels and spending many Shabbat dinners explaining to others why cholent IS a food group of its own. A simple life, a happy life, a stress-free life. Well, well, well my friends let me tell you that is far from the truth.

I’m currently spending my days studying a degree full time, being a madricha at Bnei Akiva, a student apart of Sinai Scholars, the president of AUJS Deakin and working. Now that seems like a easy breezy kind of schedule but mind you, much like every other young adult, a lot of my productive time is snatched away by a new murder series on Netflix and finding memes that ‘get me’ on Instagram.

I thought about Chabad.org –ing this little article and giving you a big spiritual lecture on how to be Jewish in our current climate, but I prefer to give you a more personable account of how I maintain my Jewish identity in the 21st century.

I’m a very proud Jew and Zionist (apologise to all the Neturei Karta readers). My parents raised me to be open minded and to constantly question the world around me, because if we don’t question how can we truly understand (thanks Mum and Aba). Judaism to me, besides my connection to G-D, is about my connection with my community. I still play basketball with majority of my Maccabi and high school team (The King David School). At work, I endeavour to answer my co-workers questions about Judaism in order to educate and break stereotypes. I ensure with the help of Chabad on Campus, to provide weekly kosher lunches on campus for Jewish students.

I think we need to preserve our tradition and values once we emerge from the Jewish day school bubble. AUJS does this perfectly, by having kosher and shomer-Shabbos events that interact with the Jewish Calendar. Regardless of your connection to Judaism, AUJS makes sure you’re connected to the community. Chabad on campus for me was the initial organisation that reached out to me, offering a Shabbos meal filled with university students from different campuses. I was no longer alone on campus, I had Jewish friends on campus who then would attend that same Shabbat meal the following year. Through AUJS and Chabad on Campus I have been able to challenge my Jewish ideology and maintain my jewish connection on and off campus.

I believe to be a Jew in 2019 you have to be true to yourself. Are the things you do in your everyday life making you happy? Do the people who you surround yourself with, encourage for you to make positive decisions? Are you living with kavanah or just doing things out of obligation? Are you being your most productive and best self? Do you learn from previous experience and try to improve your life? Most importantly, do you ultimately endeavour to lead an authentic Jewish life, that is meaningful to you in your own way?

I try to lead my life with these questions in mind. I try to think about what practices I partake in and why I do them. Asking the bigger question is what brought me here today. I always love to challenge myself, to learn more and grow as a person. In essence, being Jewish in the 21st century to me in being engaged with your community, having a personal connection to the religion and using Judaism to be a good person.

I truly hope that you have a good yom tov, and that you are blessed over these high holidays. I encourage you to think about the questions I posed earlier and try to implement them in your life. So enjoy that little fun existential crisis I’ve left you with, I’m off!