Coming Home A New Person

There is something that I managed to find in Poland that I wasn’t expecting to bring home with me and I do not believe anyone else was able to bring back. This was not a souvenir or a stone or photos, I brought back a pride in where I came from. My great grandfather on my mother’s side of the family was Jewish. I did not often think of myself as Jewish before we went on this trip. I learned about the horrible things that had happened to the Jewish people, among others, and it felt so wrong and I often thought of my grandparents and the fact that they left Austria right before the war reached them.

We went to the Jewish Community Center in Krakow and met with the head of the center. He gave us a lecture on how many of the citizens of Poland are now finding out that they have a Jewish grandparent or two Jewish grandparents when they previously had no idea of their lineage. Many of the people would come to him, confused about what to do with this new information and he would give them a safe place to explore that part of their heritage without judgement or fear.

I knew where I came from, I have many nationalities, I was always proud of where I came from. I knew that I had family that was Jewish but I never counted that as part of who I was. I wasn’t practicing Judaism so I figured that I couldn’t be Jewish because of that. I saw being Jewish as only a faith and not a nationality. When we went to the Jewish Community Center we were told that no matter how religious you are, you can still be Jewish. The director of the center is an atheist and he told us that if we asked the rabbi who worked in the synagogue if the director was as Jewish as him he would, without hesitation, tell us that they are both just as Jewish, no matter their religious views.

This spoke to me and I came home with something special. I came home with a pride for another one of my nationalities. I am Jewish, no matter my past, I will always be able to carry that with me.