Rachel Serfaty……………………………………… 32

Rachel Serfaty

she/her

“I usually say I am Moroccan and Jewish, because I consider both of those my ethnicities. Mostly because they intertwine so much, especially in places where Jews were not accepted and they had to form their own communities and pretty much rely on each other. So, as much as you can

be a person from Morocco or Spain, or Russia, if you're a Jewish person, that is, essentially the essence of your community, which

makes Judaism and the ethnicity of Judaism its own concept. My family grew up in Morocco, and I grew up in America, and I have all of these other identities and defining factors, but the common denominator with

all of my identities is the fact that I am a Jewish woman.

Another intersecting identity that I guess I'm still learning about is my queer identity. I have met a lot of queer Jews, and it is such a wonderful community, but it also has caused me a lot of distress. Because, whether overtly or not, a lot of my family has opinions about my queerness that are hard to swallow. Coming from a very traditionally,

Jewish family, has left me with a lot of ideas that have taken a lot of

mental and emotional work for me to break out of. Like my dad has told me that the Torah says man should not lie with man as he lies with woman, so it’s the truth. As hard as that is, there's still a sense of

unconditional love there, which I feel is present in a lot of Jewish families. The conditions and the generational trauma that we've faced, prompts us to stick together in a way that a lot of people don't.”