Answer: Celebrate, of course!
On the second day of Keeners, after all our icebreakers and after everyone had met, I was talking to Haim on the bus, and asked him if he was Jewish. He laughed, and said he got that a lot (the "h" in his name is pronounced like a "ch", and often when someone's name has that sound they have Jewish heritage). Turns out he was! I was so happy to find a connection with another Keener here, and others were too! By coincidence, everyone sitting around us was Jewish as well. It was a ____! After all the excitement of us finding out each others' religions died down, someone had the wonderful idea of having a Shabbat service on friday (Shabbat is a holiday every friday sundown to saturday sundown celebrating G-d's rest day from creation, where we sing and eat and have lots of fun!). And so we did.
Half of us plus Savannah (Shabbat services are welcome to everyone, not only Jews!) went out to a wave called Babyface to surf for a bit, waiting for the sun to set to have the Shabbat service we had all been waiting for.
Normally, for Shabbat services, we sing prayers and traditionally eat a special braided egg bread called "challah", pass a cup of wine/grape juice for everyone to take a sip, and light two candles to bless the week. As we did not have these resources at hand, we improvised. We had a loaf of white bread for the challah, a grape Freezie for the wine, and two Glo-sticks as candles. We sang, ate, had lots of fun, and taught our customs to our enthusiastic non-Jewish friend (Savannah), and had a wonderful time.
In conclusion, after coming to a camp not knowing anyone (although I did know two people), you are going to find connections with everyone, even if you don't expect it. Not only with religion! You just have to be open to meeting new people, and you'll soon find out how small our world really is. Music, sports (kayaking is a given here!), books, and tv shows are only a few of the many things you can connect with other people with. The world is your oyster!
Half of us plus Savannah (Shabbat services are welcome to everyone, not only Jews!) went out to a wave called Babyface to surf for a bit, waiting for the sun to set to have the Shabbat service we had all been waiting for.
Normally, for Shabbat services, we sing prayers and traditionally eat a special braided egg bread called "challah", pass a cup of wine/grape juice for everyone to take a sip, and light two candles to bless the week. As we did not have these resources at hand, we improvised. We had a loaf of white bread for the challah, a grape Freezie for the wine, and two Glo-sticks as candles. We sang, ate, had lots of fun, and taught our customs to our enthusiastic non-Jewish friend (Savannah), and had a wonderful time.
In conclusion, after coming to a camp not knowing anyone (although I did know two people), you are going to find connections with everyone, even if you don't expect it. Not only with religion! You just have to be open to meeting new people, and you'll soon find out how small our world really is. Music, sports (kayaking is a given here!), books, and tv shows are only a few of the many things you can connect with other people with. The world is your oyster!
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