I realize that this post may offend some people. So I apologize in advance, and would generally appreciate the feedback and input of those that may be offended. And for the record, I don’t believe in God or any written religion of any sort. The bible, torah, and any other book you can come up with are all very well-written fairy tales to me. I believe you should be a good and moral person in your present life on earth because that’s the right thing to do, not because you’re going to some magical place in your after life. Furthermore, I believe that religion is just no longer needed in society. I believe it was ‘created’ as a way to maintain social order and prevent humans from killing and raping each other non-stop. But now we have government for that. Prison in the present life somehow seems like a bigger threat than Hell in a possible and uncertain ‘next life’. On another note, Heaven must be crowded  – unless you believe everyone is a sinner – in which case…. Hell must be crowded.

Now I must also tell you that my Mom is ready to throw a parade for me because my boyfriend happens to be Jewish. He’s about as Jewish as I am though- meaning not at all. And my mother doesn’t even know when Hanukkah is – but all that is somehow irrelevant because by tradition my family is Jewish and so I absolutely MUST marry a Jew. Us non-real Jews are not the only ones that think this way – although I will say that we’re one of the least accepting religions – I feel like if a Catholic marries a Christian or a Jew it’s not AS big of a deal to the Catholic family as long as the person getting married is happy.

See there’s a multitude of reasons as to why people think very similarly to the way my family thinks. My mom grew up in the Soviet Union, where you were ostracized for being Jewish – and so all the Jewish kids stuck together. And you end up marrying a Russian Jew because THAT’S ALL THERE IS. It’s not like there are a bunch of Canadian Catholics running around in Russia. There are no other people except Russians and there were only 2 religions – Russian Orthodox Christians and the Russian Jews. And that’s how it was in every country, you go to Italy and all you get is Italians. You go to Israel and you have the Muslims separate from the Israelites and that’s just about it. The point is that no other country is a melting pot, except the US. But we all come here and settle into little communities and create our own mini-countries. Now you have all the Russians in Brighton Beach and Sheepshead Bay. You have Poles in Greenpoint, the Spanish in Sunset Park and so on and so forth. So we take this “melting pot” and divide it and try to replicate what we’re claiming to want to get away from.

Now, as an immigrant, I was brought here for better opportunities. I still have yet to figure out why my family thinks that meeting people outside my cultural group is not part of that opportunity. Meeting people with different experiences, beliefs, religion, culture, food, dancing, music, etc.. ALL of that is opportunity. I personally think it’s foolish to avoid it and try to stick to your own little cultural circle. The world is more connected than ever before. I can ship things to people ACROSS THE WORLD in under 24 hours but I avoid the people a couple of blocks down because “they’re not my people” … that’s just an archaic way of thinking.

Part of growing up in a different country than your family grew up in is that you are bound to have to fight some battles; battles between the traditional and the logical.