By Shira Kramer, Managing Editor
Growing up, I lived near a famous yeshiva. Every Shabbos, it was normal for world-renowned rabbis to speak, rabbis that people would pay good money and travel hours to hear. The yeshiva was home to a very insular community filled with families who lived similar lives and exposed their children to people similar to them. My Family was the outlier.
My parents sent me to a Jewish community school, which meant that anyone, regardless of their level of observance, could attend. The Judaics classes were offered by frum teachers who wouldn’t dream of sending their children to the school they taught in (at least not under normal circumstances).
My school was also one of the leading college preparatory schools in the area, so while we had a dual curriculum, for most parents, it was often seen as just another leg up in college admissions. Therefore, a lot of my classmates weren’t religious in the slightest, and some were even resentful of their parents’ decision to send them to Jewish day school in the first place.
On the one hand, we weren’t considered a typical yeshiva day school by the religious New York schools, but we also weren’t considered a normal private school by the fancy elite schools we competitively played sports with. We were unique, and although we weren’t accepted by everybody, I enjoyed my time there immensely.
Although I saw this less observant side of Baltimore every day, I was rarely exposed to other types of Orthodox Jews in the city. I always heard that there were additional diverse communities in Baltimore, and that there were Jews nothing like the people in my Yeshivish community, yet I never saw them.
So, during the day, I would go to my community day school, and at night I would come home to my Yeshivish neighborhood. On top of all of that, one of my parents wasn’t Orthodox, so some days I would go home to a loving, nonreligious household. My NCSY advisors called me the Jewish Hannah Montana.
The only exposure I had to Modern Orthodoxy was through some people from school and family members who identified as such. Many of them did not dress tznius (modestly) in any way or keep strictly kosher. NCSY gave me a glimpse into real Modern Orthodox life, however the people who practised Judaism that way were my mentors, not my peers.
When I decided to attend Yeshiva University and told my friends from my neighborhood about it, they were excited for me. They smiled and asked questions, but I knew they would never think about attending YU themselves or sending their children here in the future.
After visiting YU for the first time, I was pleasantly surprised to see girls who looked like me. These were the girls I thought I wanted to surround myself with. But, deep down, I was scared I would never truly be one of them.
When I got to YU and started taking Judaic classes, I was shocked to learn that my Jewish education didn’t prepare me for YU Judaic classes. During my first semester, I decided to take an advanced class on medical ethics on Shabbos because the topic interested me and I loved learning. However, shortly after the semester started, I realized I had no business being in an advanced class. In my high school, we rarely learned halacha. Yet, here, I have full classes on just one aspect of a singular mitzvah. The first year of Judaic classes was tough. I had to adjust to higher paced and more difficult classes.
While the content was a challenge, I loved getting to know the incredible teachers and being in classes with students who really care about learning Torah. I also really enjoyed that my teachers talked to us like we were a group of knowledgeable students instead of introducing every basic idea as if it was brand new information, as that was something I always cringed at when my high school teachers did it.
While connecting in class, I realized that I really resonated with the ideas and values Modern Orthodoxy teaches. I found a renewed sense of passion in my religion through my expanded horizons at YU. At night, when I went back to my dorm, I would discuss what I learned that day in Judaic classes with my roommates. Sometimes, as we talked, I would have to do a double take to remind myself that this was really my life.
It was actually in my secular classes, though, that I really learned what Modern Orthodoxy is. We would discuss Jewish themes and even the non-Jewish teachers wanted to learn more about our culture.
At YU, I not only found my closest friends and teachers that I truly respect, but I also found a group within Orthodoxy that I really relate to. It may have taken me until college to get here, but by finding this Modern Orthodox community, I finally discovered my authentic self.
Photo Caption: Owings Mills Torah Center, Pikesville, Maryland
Photo Credit: Shira Kramer