Living with Stereotypes: All Jews Have Moneyby Jaime Egan | More from this Blogger 28 Aug 2006 09:14 AM
For more of my thoughts about Jewish stereotypes, please see: I'm Not Truly Jewish? Of course, the stereotype that all Jews have plenty of money is probably the most popular. Well, I am here to tell you -- all Jews do NOT have plenty of money. However, there are many people in the Jewish community who only serve to fuel this vicious stereotype. Gee, how do you think stereotypes originate? In "I'm Not Truly Jewish?" I talked about how I was shunned by the people in my synagogue because I did not become a Bat Mitzvah. I am also certain that it was because I was not from a wealthy family. For those of you who might not know a lot about the Bar or Bat Mitzvah celebration, I'll tell you. These days -- and back when I was younger -- there would be a ceremony on a Shabbat morning that would be incorporated into the Shabbat service. The Bar or Bat Mitzvah would read certain portions of the Torah that he or she had selected and the service would continue as normal around that. Then, Saturday night there would be a big party -- sort of like a reception. Because my family was not wealthy, we could not afford this big party that we knew would be expected of us. Therefore, neither my sister nor I had a Bat Mitzvah. It truly saddens me that the worth in a religious community can come from money. It saddens me even more when the people in the community prove a certain stereotype true. It saddens me the most that because of the way I was treated that I lost my way from the Jewish faith for a long time. Once we left that synagogue, I had nothing left of my religion; not that I really had much of it from the beginning. The worst part was that I left G-d. I have no doubt in my mind now that He never left me, but because of the negative treatment I had received, I couldn't believe at that time that He was in my life anymore. I felt like if the people in the Jewish community only saw worth if we had money, then that must mean that G-d had it in for me. I had nowhere to turn spiritually and I lost a big part of myself at that time in my life. It wasn't until I was fifteen and we joined a Reformed synagogue that I found my way back to G-d and my faith. But that's a story for another time. Learn more about Jaime Egan  Bio has been removed by administrator Relevantjewish tags User Comments  Miriam Metzinger |
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