Jews Are Not A Minority

Hello, friends.

"Jews Are Not A Minority." Okay, okay, I'm just kidding. Jews are a minority basically everywhere (except for Israel). But living with my new roommate this year has taught me what it means to really be a minority...because she's Zoroastrian.

Zoroastrianism is a fascinating religion. Many of my peers have only heard of it because they took AP World History in high school (and that was honestly my only experience of it before now). I have done some significant Googling on it since August, and talk every so often with my roomie about her religious practices as well. I'm still working on learning about it, so maybe I'll have a later post about the religion when I know more. But I'll leave it for now at the basic explanation that Zoroastrianism is considered monotheistic, it is possibly older than Judaism, and it does not involve Jesus of Nazareth.

I live in a very unique "dorm" on campus, a Lodge, where all seven of us girls practice different religions to some extent. What're the odds, especially in southern Virginia? We've got Jewish, Zoroastrian, Catholic, Unitarian Universalist, Presbyterian, Methodist, and Muslim/Catholic. I feel like I share the most in terms of religious/world beliefs with my Zoroastrian roommate, and our Lodgemate who is Unitarian Universalist. This by no means implies that I completely diverge with the other girls, nor that I am closer friends with these two girls, but I just feel great similarities with them because we just seem to view the world in very similar ways.

Why is this? Why do we have similar opinions on religion, on the way we want to live our lives, on the world? Especially with my roommate, does it simply have to do the fact that Zoroastrianism and Judaism developed around the same time in history? Does it have to do with the three of us not having Jesus as the center of our religion? Or is it related to factors outside of religion, something more to do with our families' attitudes and cultural pasts? Whatever the deeper, theological reasons, I definitely feel a kinship particularly with my roommate.

I think it has a lot to do with our status as religious minorities. Whenever I talk about my research on antisemitism with other people, they are usually Jewish and understand where I'm coming from, or Christian and feel bad for the Jewish plight. But with her, it is different. I now feel a little guilty whenever I talk about Jews as a minority, because I cannot help but think about her much smaller religion. Jews certainly have faced a terrible history of unfounded prejudice, that is for certain, but in American today, can we be considered a true "minority?" When popular TV shows like NCIS have Jewish rituals thrown in without any explanation for a lay audience under the assumption that they will understand, when even non-Jews adopt Yiddish idioms like "oy vey" and "mensch," it can be hard to feel truly put-upon, our religion is so culturally present.

I talk with her, and realize that even as a strong advocate for interfaith, I myself know almost nothing about her faith. She speaks of holidays that I have never heard mentioned in mainstream media, and to attend her religious school as a child she had to actually drive to another state just to find a community that was right for her family. I hope to learn more about this interesting faith from her over the next few months before graduation, because I have a sneaking suspicion that it may be even more similar to Judaism than Christianity is. Whether or not it is, though, does not necessarily matter: I remain strong friends with many Christian individuals, and non-friends with some Jewish individuals. But it is still nice to feel a connection with someone religiously, especially when I am so far from my tight Jewish community.

I want to close this post with an excellent trivia question I picked up from the IFYC (Interfaith Youth Core--you should Google them, they're awesome):

"Which U.S. President, while addressing a Jewish community and affirming America’s commitment to interfaith cooperation, insisted that, 'the Government of the United States…gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance?'"

It was George Washington. Even back in 1790, our great country had strong interfaith principles at work. We just need to continue that legacy!

Now go out and love one another.

<3,
Allyson