Faith, religion, and spirituality are on my mind. We are in the midst of the Jewish High Holy Days and today my husband and I went to a Bengali Durga Puja, the annual celebration of the Hindu goddess Durga. I recently read the book, Acts of Faith by Eboo Patel, an Indian American Muslim who founded the Interfaith Youth Core, an organization that brings young people of different religious traditions together to do direct service.I related to Eboo's experience as an activist college student searching for a way to connect his faith and religion to his desire to better the world. This was also my journey. Being heavily involved in student activism in college left me feeling that something was missing - where was the spirit and soul of what we were doing? Where we thinking about how we were treating our fellow students or just focused on "fighting the power"? Disillusionment led me to work for change on the inside - my personal growth - and within the non-profit world.
Marrying outside my religion has tested my faith and values. Do I really believe that all religions are equal? Can my husband and I celebrate and appreciate both of our religious and cultural backgrounds without resentment or fear? This includes our own religions. For a time, I avoided the Jewish community out of fear of my Judaism being questioned and of my husband feeling excluded. After reading With Roots in Heaven, about Rabbi Tirzah Firestone's return to Judaism, I realized that I want to be connected to a Jewish community - one that is inclusive and open-minded. These do exist, and I am grateful for that.
I struggle with the contradictions. Some Jews consider themselves "the chosen people" and believe that we are a "light to the nations" - an example for other religions. This seems condescending and exclusive. Yet at the same time we have a long history of standing up for the rights of all peoples. Many Jews have explored other spiritual traditions; Jewish Buddhists abound and Israelis are known to travel in droves to India after completing their mandatory military service.
I don't know what all of this means. I do know that my activism stems from my Judaism - the experience of being a Jew in a Christian country, the history of American Jews as union organizers and civil rights activists, and the concepts of tzedakah (justice), and tikkun olam (repairing the world). I also know that I believe we all come from the same source and that the path to peace has to come from acceptance and love.
Acts of Faith ends with Patel's thoughts on religious pluralism, which I believe can be applied to not just religion but ethnicity, class, gender, sexual orientation, and all of the things that divide us as humans:
"I came to one conclusion. We have to save each other. It's the only way to save ourselves."
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