TMTOWTDI

This post is part of a series of essays I will be posting.

In the summer of 2007 I attended an international B’nai B’rith Youth Organization (a Jewish youth group) three-week summer experience called Kallah. Kallah focused on learning about the vast spectrum of Jewish thought, ritual, culture, and Judaism’s perspective on modern issues. In attendance was a wide array of Jewish teenagers from all over the U.S., and a few from Bulgaria. As a part of that experience, we participated in an exchange program with a nearby Orthodox Jewish camp, Camp Morasha.

My expectations for the first part of the program, their visit to our camp, were very low. I anticipated a boring evening where the culture gap would prevent much interaction. I was pleasantly surprised at how great the evening went–everyone had a good time, and everyone gained something from the discussions that, while focusing on our differences, also highlighted our similarities. These were also your mostly typical American teenagers.

The next evening we visited their camp. I still consider that night to be one of the most eye-opening nights of my life. We arrived after dinner and joined them for live music and dancing, albeit with men and women separated as per Orthodox tradition. The dancing that night, dancing that was closer to sprinting around the room for fifteen minutes at a time playing crack the whip, dancing where it was okay to let yourself go and be consumed by the energy of the room, dancing that demonstrated such a passion for life, this was the way to celebrate living!

From that evening, I gained an even greater respect for traditional Orthodox customs. Yes, when a typical group of teenage boys decides to dance to techno, they will be wild and have fraternal fun. It does not, however, even approximate the experience that we had at Morasha. Separating the men and the women can make for an amazing time like it did for us that night. It can remove the awkward atmosphere of men and women dancing and reduce it to a simple night of fun. The experience enlightened me to the parts of Orthodox culture that, while superficially may seem outdated and very conservative, actually arise from a very cognizant understanding of human behavior very deserving of respect.

Contributing to diversity are my array of technical creative skills, my experience in Boy Scouts, and my love of learning. I bring to the table experience in videography, video editing, graphic design, DVD production, web design and development. In Scouting, I am one of the few to earn Eagle Scout. My love of learning is what has shaped everything I do, from choosing to participate in Scouting to spending an hour reading world, science, and technology news daily for almost the past decade.

Diversity makes for much more interesting and engaging learning.