Joan Marcus and Nora Marcus-Hecht

She/hers

Is there anything else that you would like to add?

Joan: As an Ashkenazi Jew, I must recognize my white privilege in this country. At the same time, I have a very keen sense of myself as a person in the minority for whom many assumptions are made, and those assumptions could get me killed. So I would say those two things work against one another, or they're contradictions I must hold as a European Jew.

Nora: I realized recently that I didn't fully appreciate how safe I felt at Hillel until I went to Israel. It was just such a surreal feeling to be in a place where everyone around me was Jewish, and I didn't have to worry about encountering anti-Semitic symbols or hate crimes. As I've become more involved in the Jewish community here and helped prepare for Purim and Passover, that feeling of safety resurfaces. It's just something I didn't expect to feel when I first started engaging with Hillel, but I'm grateful for it now.

Joan to Nora: You’ve always been on a search for community. You know, all your life, you've been looking for community.