Joan Marcus and Nora Marcus-Hecht

She/hers

Have you ever experienced being in a space where you felt like you were not Jewish enough? (Con’t)

Joan: Growing up in Brookline without having a Bat Mitzvah, I always felt like I wasn't Jewish enough compared to my friends who had different experiences. It was a struggle to find a way to identify as Jewish that didn’t feel based on a certain level of knowledge or practice. It was also difficult to connect with Judaism in a way that wasn’t centered around tragedy, as my understanding of what it meant to be Jewish was shaped by learning about the Holocaust when I was around 12 or 13. Like many kids at that age, I became acutely aware of the horrors of the Holocaust as we studied it in school. I went through a phase of reading everything I could on the subject, including books like "Night" and watching the TV movie "Holocaust." But as I learned more, it eroded my sense of identity as a Jew. I was upset that this tragic history was the defining characteristic of my religion and culture. It took some time for me to come to terms with that and find my connection to Judaism beyond just the weight of its past.

As a young person, I was bothered that my entire understanding of being Jewish was based on the Holocaust and the awareness of being part of a historically persecuted minority. In college, I wondered if there was a way to feel Jewish without framing Jewish identity around these ideas. But unfortunately, many incidents in recent years have made it difficult to separate my Jewish identity from that history of persecution.