Heroes at Home

By Julia Auster
Skidmore College

I never quite believed everything they taught us in Hebrew School. For me, like most things in my life, it's the Jewish people in my life, my heroes, if you will, that make Judaism meaningful.

My Bubbe, for instance. She survived the Holocaust in the forests of Poland, living among men and putting bombs on Nazi train tracks. If that's not heroic, I don't know what is. It's not only her brave past, but also her loving and caring present that make her one of my heroes. She calls me shayneh maydeleh (beautiful girl), teaching me Yiddish whenever she can. She tells us stories of the War and how an orange was the most decadent gift a girl could get in her times. She is a strong, Jewish woman and one of my oldest role models.

Next, my parents. My father grew up in a truly Jewish home. Passover sedarim for three hours plus, four or five eastern European languages being spoken daily, and his own mother taught at his Hebrew school. He peppers everyday conversations with the Yiddish he picked up from home. Gey gezinter heit! he tells me as I leave the house (go in good health). The younger of two, he was always catching up to his brother. And the two of them have both become highly successful doctors. Maybe his beliefs have nothing to with how he achieved his goals, but he has taught me the traditions of my religion and worked hard to become what he wanted to be, something I aspire to do myself.

My mother grew up in an Irish Catholic house. But when I was practicing for my Bat Mitzvah, she picked it up right along with me. Having sat through mass after mass properly and quietly, she was immediately drawn to the more relaxed atmosphere of our congregation's services. She loved the aspect of Judaism that allowed one to ask questions instead of silently following. She loved acquiring new traditions and bringing people together, often by way of food. I think of her as a hero for being so open to new things. I try to emulate this whenever I can.

And then there's my friend Elana. I have many Jewish friends and we all like to embrace our religion in jokes and food and spending time together, but Elana is different. I have heard her stories of spending an entire year in Israel and I love listening to her talk about the homeland. In these violent times, that alone is admirable. And she loves food, and she keeps kosher, because she believes in the laws. She has also put entire relationships on the line for her beliefs. This is the most remarkable. She has demonstrated how powerfully she feels for her religion and how loving someone may not be reason enough to change that. I marvel at just how much she keeps Judaism in her life and I think it's even rubbed off on me a little.

Don't get me wrong, I am a huge Superman fan and I love Christian Bale, but heroes don't always wear capes. They just do a little good every day that makes a big difference overall.

Julia Auster is a rising senior at Skidmore College where she double-majors in French and Education. She is excited for her last year and enjoyed writing this article.

[Posted 6/21/09]