I should’ve seen this coming. Really, what other possible outcome could there have been from moving cross country to intentional Christian community?

The, in hindsight predictable, response to that move was that my Judaism suddenly had stakes. The awkward comments, the butchered Hebrew (Seminary students are required to take biblical Greek or Hebrew), the othering glances.

Look, I want to be absolutely clear here: none of this was malicious. They just didn’t know what they didn’t know.

All the same, feeling like the unappointed representative of all Jews was not something I was prepared for, socially or theologically. Adding to my frustration, there are two synagogues with in a mile of the campus, one Conservative and one Reform. I didn’t understand how these curious, kind, generous, academically qualified people couldn’t perform the most basic inquiry into a tradition not their own.