“I was struck by a thunderbolt yesterday afternoon. The shock of realization was brought on by my reading of yet another online diary entry that conjured up the tired and trite image of the ‘nice Jewish’ upbringing that evidently every American who has immigrated to Israel was blessed to have experienced. The collective American Jewish memory is comprised of flash backs to bonfires at Jewish summer camps, sneaking cigarettes at Hebrew schools, making Jewish friends, dating Jewish girls and being entertained by cool, young, sandal-wearing Rabbis.

This nice, clean, sanitized reality is about as foreign to me as a Catholic Mass. The omnipresent “community” has the most stringent standards for acceptance.  I am but the son of a rabble rousing, professionally eclectic, father and a beautiful, funny but not elegantly educated mother. As such, my Jewish passport was never stamped. And my family lived a slightly cracked life – off the Jewish map…”

Click here to read the entire piece as it was posted on the Times of Israel:http://blogs.timesofisrael.com/off-the-jewish-map/