I was born and raised in Cleveland, Ohio into a Jewish family! I knew I was Jewish because my brother had a Bar Mitzvah. My grandmother made chicken soup. I loved corn beef on rye. I ate matzah on Passover. I went to Sunday school on Sunday mornings. And oh yeah we didn't have XMAS lights. OY! WAS I JEWISH!

I moved to Columbus seven years ago. Things were slightly different. Besides having the famous Buckeye football team, Columbus had a much smaller Jewish population than Cleveland and it seemed the Jewish community was more assimilated:

There was school on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur.
Finding challah in New Albany was like a scavenger hunt.
The grocery stores consistently ran out of matzah.
Finding hamentashen was really a challenge.

All of these "hardships" soon became a dominant factor of my "Columbus" personality. That is when I learned about the Florence Melton Adult Mini School.

BUT even then I didn't enroll right away. It took me a few years to register. You see, I saw myself as accomplished adult, mother of four, I sent my preschoolers to the JCC and my family joined a synagogue.

It wasn't until we enrolled our kindergarten age son into The Columbus Jewish Day School that I started to become anxious. Our son Harrison made me realize that I lacked the knowledge of my own heritage. I could not answer simple questions about my own choices and my own beliefs.

And so thanks to Florence Melton my journey began two years ago. It was challenging. I heard words I had never heard before……..pluralistic, Tanach, chavrutah.

My critical thinking and intellectual curiosity was stimulated with each lesson.

I learned Judaism was non judgmental:
I did not need to read Hebrew to study the Tanach.
My thoughts and comments were always both welcomed in the classroom and respected.
Everything was interactive:

We took field trips, visited the mikvah, shook the lulav, tasted honey cake, learned self-defense and had a movie night.

It was revealing
I learned:
Rhythms is what Jews do
I learned:
Purposes is what Jews think
I learned:
Ethics is How we are Jewish
I learned:
Dramas is Why we are the way we are.

It was all tremendously rewarding.
I was touched by the unconditional acceptance of my fellow learners, awed by their commitment and efforts and felt
Privileged to have had this opportunity.

I am so proud to be a part of the Melton family.

As those before me have done, I embrace the commitment in our covenant with GOD to heal the world. I take personal responsibility to do my part. I look forward to my next dream to visit Ha-Aretz - Yisrael.

Thank you and Shalom.

PAM LIPPY