Integrating within a Jewish Community

by Dorit Sasson | More from this Blogger

19 Jul 2008 02:19 AM

On our kibbutz, we participated in social events, which for Israel, are considered important days like Yitzhak Rabin z"l, Holocaust Remembrance Day, and Remembrance Day of Israel's fallen soldiers.

Those of you who have visited a kibbutz, you probably know that a kibbutz unit is a self-sufficient community responsible for its own social and economic needs.

Searching for the right community here in Pittsburgh however is a completely different story. As we see it, there are two kinds of communities: there is the JCC community and the synaoguge community. Both are social in nature - one is obviously more religious than the other. We've been shopping around for synaoguges too, but each one is so vastly different from the other (there are also so many of them) that it takes time to really get a feel of the religious aspect of a Jewish community as well.

After living on a kibbutz where social events play such a large role in our lives, the JCC is the closest thing that sustains that kind of a social connection. But still, there are marked differences between Israeli and American culture, mentality and even physical location, shape and size of the JCC compared to the rural location of a kibbutz, that comparing between the two isn't relevant. I always say to myself to avoid comparing between the social community of a kibbutz and the JCC because they are so very different.

We're lucky that the JCC is a ten minute's walk away from us. Our son attends the daycare there including the pool. When we punch in with our card, we feel a sense of belonging that triggers the sense of belonging to a kibbutz in some form. There are family events where we meet the parents of other children our son's age. There are numerous other Israelis whose children also attend the JCC early childhood program. But still, it's not the same like home.

Now I know why so many Israelis feel a deep longing for home and visit Israel frequently. As our one year mark of adjusting to life in Pittsburgh approaches, I am starting to feel a little homesick and wistful, too.

Learn more about Dorit Sasson

Hi ! I'm your Jewish mama trying to combine a Jewish life with freelance writing particularly for the educational markets.

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