Leo Levine…………………………………………. 22

Leo Levine

he/him

You can tell a lot of my Jewish family are Jewish without any outside information, and then, I'm in the bunch, and I probably have the strongest connection to my Jewish heritage. But yet, if you put us all in a lineup, you would expect everyone except me to be Jewish because of my appearance. So, my Judaism is something I have always had to prove about myself. I think that having to assert my Judaism has given me

more pride in my Jewish identity than maybe some of my family members who have always been assumed to be Jewish.

I used to sit at the front desk at Hillel, and once in a while, parents would come in and I’d give them a tour. Sometimes, at the end, they'd be like, ‘So, Hillel is pretty accepting of anyone from any background, you’re obviously not Jewish.’ And, I'm like, ‘Well, why?’ And, I kind of took it as a teaching opportunity, because I think it’s really important that we don’t

try to put people in boxes. I know that if people try to put me in a box, they're not gonna get the right one.”