My dads side of the family is Jewish and my moms side is Catholic. I grew up going to Jewish temple, celebrating Christmas, and going to Catholic church on big holidays. My parents have always been supportive of me figuring out what religion means to me, however, they did push me to go to temple and church up until my Bat Mitzvah. Them pushing me to have some religious structure in my life growing up helped me be able to navigate what religion means to me. All of my grandparents were more religious than my parents, however, they never tried to pull me into being their religion more than the other. They were understanding of the fact that while I was technically Jewish, I followed both religions. While I am grateful for the way that my parents chose to raise me in terms of my religion, I remember it being difficult to fully appreciate my religious identity because I felt I was stuck in the middle at times. I was not fully accepted in the Jewish community because my mother isn’t Jewish, but I also wasn’t accepted in the Catholic community as I am technically not Catholic. I believe this feeling of confusion when it comes to my religious identity relates to how Jewish immigrants felt. When they came to America, they were faced with discrimination that made them feel ashamed about their identity. This embarrassment led to conflicting feelings about their identity. While my feelings towards my religious identity do not stem from discrimination, the feeling of not being fully accepted because of my religion was something that I felt, as did Jewish immigrants.

– SS

Relationship:  Great-grandchild of im/migrant or more Great-grandchild of im/migrant or more