I was born that way. As stated elsewhere, my mother was Jewish and my father a Roman Catholic. We attended shul in Chicago at Congregation Agudas Achim. I was Bar Mitzvah there on November 19, 1966. I grew up in Kankakee IL, and there was a synagogue there (just a few blocks from my parents home actually), but my mom’s parents had a phobia about being Jewish that to this day I do not fully understand, but Jewish practice was always on the downlow. When mom died I was going through the dumpster (where my dad had tossed all of her memorabilia) and I found lots of her stuff, including: my brother Dan’s bris certificate, my bris certificate, my bar mitzvah certificate, a newspaper clipping of a celebration for my grand parents 50th anniversary. What was funny (interesting? frightening? dumbfounding?) was that a year of so ago I had compiled a family tree mostly form notes my aunts Vernette and Rita had gathered but I mostly used ancestry.com. I made up a packet for my sons, Joshua, Jordan and Jesse, and included the ancestry.com tree and the original long from one my aunts had provided (upgraded to include my sons and their children). I also included copies of aforementioned bris and bar mitzvah certificates, and a copy of the 50th anniversary newspaper article about my grandparents 50th.
Jordan and Jesse are video-journalists. Especially Jordan (and he has won a boat load of Emmy Awards for his television work in Chicago). Jordan, for whatever reason, took that clipping and researched it at the original publishers (The Daily Journal, then The Kankakee Daily Journal). In the microfiche records he found the original published clipping, It did not match my clipping. Except for the picture of my grandparents, it was almost completely different. Instead of showing that they had been married at Congregation Agudas Achim by a Rabbi, it said they were married at the 1st Baptist Church by a Reverend. This contradiction was what I meant above when I said (interesting? frightening? dumbfounding?). But I think I know how this happened. The Stewarts were very secretive about their Jewishness. They didn’t want people in Kankakee to know what they were. It probably has something to do with the events of WW2 and the Holocaust. I am guessing that the article posted in the local Kankakee paper was the one folks in Kankakee were intended to see, and the copy I had was the one distributed to the synagogue in Chicago.
Personally, I have never been all that demonstrative about being a Jew. It was never an issue, and in fact after my Bar Mitzvah I pretty much forgot about it all. Then I spent some time in Israel (1974) and I reconnected with my Jewish side. Well kinda. For awhile. I started wearing my Mogan David while in Israel. I also started wearing a beard, and I purchased a mezuzah in Jerusalem and attached it to the doorframe of every house that the boys mother and I lived in. But other than that, and the Jewish elements that happened at our wedding, there wasn’t much Jewy stuff in my life at all.
By the time I left the boys Mom, I was for all intents and purposes, an atheist (a pantheistic one, but nonetheless..). Qadisha, who was wife number two, was a Wiccan. I played around with that for a few years. Then I met my true sole mate, Ceridwen and we founded the Reformed Druids of Gaia (RDG) It’s an international organization. At one time, we had almost 5,000 members in 17 countries an almost all of the states of the USA. Covid 19 sucker punched us, and people stopped practicing. We never really recovered, although we still hang on. Due to Ceridwen and I attending Kirtan sessions in Arcata monthly since 2019, we’ve introduced some Hindu philosophical an practical elements into the RDG. We continue to evolve.
On October 7th 2023. I awoke to the news that the terrorist group, Hamas, had invaded southern Israel. and committed genocidal atrocities on Kibbutzim, private homes, villages and a music festival. In total, 1,195 people were killed by the attacks: 736 Israeli civilians (including 38 children) 79 foreign nationals, and 379 members of the security forces. While attending the Nova music festival, 364 civilians were killed and many more wounded. About 250 Israeli and non-Israeli civilians and soldiers were taken as hostages to the Gaza Strip. Dozens of cases of rape and sexual assault reportedly occurred.
In the aftermath of that I started reading reports from various sources on the Internet, and Facebook and Progressive Facebook Groups. What really shocked me was the lies. I’ve written about and debunked these elsewhere on this blog, so I wont go into more here, but I found myself defending Israel on these pages, and getting my ass reamed out, but I have stood my ground.
Because of 10/07/2023 I am more Jewish now then I have ever been in my 72 years of life on this planet. I was born a Jew, and I will more than likely die a Jew, and I will defend Israel, at least with the pen, for the rest of my life.
And if you don’t like it you can’t have any!
The best part? Ceridwen supports me and she will continue to do so no matter what. That’s what love is all about.
