I’ve Never Felt More Jewish Than I Did at Charlottesville

Photo credit: Evan Nesterak

Three weeks ago, I was in Israel on my Birthright trip. The program did what it was supposed do, I suppose. I felt very connected to my Judaism, to my Jewish identity, especially as a secular Jew from a mostly non-religious, non-practicing family. I thought about maybe attending synagogue when I got home.

Two weeks ago I bought Shabbat candles, which they actually do have in grocery stores in Virginia, go figure, and promptly stuck them into a drawer, with a vague notion of maybe lighting them the following week and staying off Netflix for a day.

And then this Saturday, the Nazis came.