Hi, my name is Benjamin Ludman. I am 13 and live in Halifax, Nova Scotia,
Canada. Halifax has only a small Jewish population. My family is moving to Israel this
summer. Being a religious teen in Halifax is not easy. Many of my friends from school go
out on Friday nights and I don't. Lots of activities are scheduled on Saturd ay. Even most
of my Jewish friends are not as religious as I am so I imagine it isn't nearly as hard for
them, but for me it is. We don't learn Hebrew or anything Jewish in school so we go to
after-school Talmud Torah. It is sometimes fun because I see my friends from all over the
city and we get to talk. During the summer most of us go to a camp called Camp Kadimah.
It's a fun camp that is in another part of Nova Scotia and it lasts for 6 weeks. Almost
every Jewish kid in this part of Canada goes there! People also come from all over North
America to be at the camp. This year we even had some kids from Israel! We have lots of
fun. There is sailing and waterskiing, leagues for sports, dances and tons of other stuff.
We also play pranks at night, after curfew, and get into lots of trouble. Camp is always a
highlight of the year.
Please write me. I would like to hear from people who made aliya from Canada or from some
other small place.
Benjamin
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I want to tell you a little about life in Reading, England as a Jew - its very
different. There are about 200-250 Jews here. Its really a very small community, but there
are a lot of plus sides to this. Everybody matters, and everybody gives according to what
they can do, or want to do. I occasionally lein or do a haphtorah, being one of the
Frummer congregants, and I am ROSH Children service each Shabbas before/on Rosh Chodesh. I
am also one of 4 leaders in Hanoar Hatzioni and run a Ken every Sunday from 3-5 for 7-12's
and a 12+(to 15/16) on every other Thursday, although this week I'm going to see the
Warsaw Philharmonic instead, as they're playing in Reading.
It's pretty cool, actually, and it counts for community service hours. This Sunday our
program on kibbutz life ended in an impromptu shaving-foam fight in which I was given a
"Mohican" by some mad 10 year olds!!! Needless to say this stuck, as it was
foam, and required much effort to remove!!!
I used to attend a weekly Gomarrah shir (for 3 of us) with the Rabbi, and in the holidays
I often stay with Jewish friends from London, where there are loads of Jews. Still, I find
that those Jews from the big cities in spite of all their Jewish friends and lifestyles
have far less sense of identity than I do. I am forced to ask myself who I am almost
daily, as at my school there are only 4 Jews - a Cohen and his sister form my shul, a
German-Jewish girl on an exchange and me, der kleine yid.
My Jewish friends are often loath to go out and do things, so I find that I go out with
goyim a lot, although I have never dated a non-Jewish girl or anything of that nature!!! I
find, however, that when meeting Jews from
London that they have very little idea of Judaism, that they take it for granted and care
little for it. Comments such as "Nathan, I promise you, I'd NEVER eat pork on
Shabbos" or "Youre stupid - why are you fasting, just 'cos its 9th Av".
And it was worse still in Israel, when I went on a month-long tour in the summer, with
Hanoar. My group, as a whole was respectful of the 2 or 3 of us that were shomrei shabbat,
and we were able to go to shul and even conduct our own services (I davened Musaf on the
EXODUS boat form Greece, our 3 day journey to relive the 1948 journey of the same name)
and it was wonderful. However, many Israelis I met, not just kibbutzniks either, were so
anti-religion and this appalled me - I was made to feel inferior for
believing in hashem and practising Judaism. On the other hand, and as I found, the other
extreme; the other type of Jews I met were fairly narrow-minded, sheltered
ultra-religious types. Whilst this piety is awe-inspiring on some levels, I found it to be
unrealistic and ignorant of the outside world. Not, of course, that we should assimilate,
but that we need to be aware of the world around us, of other people and
differences in opinion. So whilst in theory I would love to live in Israel, I dont know if
a fairly frum but not ultra, and realistic but not pessimistic yid has a place there.
Realistically, I would like to move to a larger Jewish community when I finish university,
but that's a long way off. For the time being I shall just enjoy the haimshe atmosphere of
our kleine shtiebl - that whenever I
want to do a haphtorah, or lein, or daven musaf or whatever, I can with about 5 minutes
notice. Also, to be allowed to be Rosh ken next year, and the children service, and to be
left to my own devices - no big bureaucratic institutions can determine my approach,
apparently.
Its lonely, granted, when I mention latkes, lokshen zuppe un kneidlach and when I call
someone a shlemiel or meschuginer and people look at me funny. But then it's no different
among so many Jews, is it?
Nathan Lyons
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