Personal Narrative: My Jewish Identity, Math, And Me

Everyone knows the friends you make in eighth grade last a lifetime, and are we any exception? Look around you, my classmates. As we have learned, these are the faces that will be with us forever, even after they start driving or shaving. These lasting bonds come from pulling those all-nighters before the big quadratic-equation exam (chapter ten I believe) and the grueling square dancing

our loud booms echo throughout the stone house. “Open the door!” a man would yell. Five kids and the parents quickly run over to the door. The father opens the door while the kids and the wife peek over his shoulder and legs. An intimidating IDF soldier roars, “We are taking over your house and you must leave within the night. If you refuse you will be jailed and/or your house will be demolished with you in it or not.” The family is forced to leave within the night in the fear that their lives would end. This is common in Palestine: Israeli soldiers taking occupied land. Palestinians that experience this take their ID’s and official documents with them. Barely anytime is left to the family to pack their belongings. I am a Palestinian, and even though I haven’t dealt with this firsthand, my parents and grandparents have dealt with this.

Before I begin this assignment, let me clarify, I am not Jewish in any way.

Bagels, big noses, curly hair, and penny pinching, are some of the common stereotypes of being Jewish. I’ve experienced all of them. My mother's side of the family is all Jewish. This Jewish heritage strongly differs from my father's side who are all of indian descent. Over the years, I have experienced challenges with my faith, especially the split between my divorced Jewish mom and Hindu dad. Even with this challenge, my mom has always been able to keep me on the page of Jewish faith and for this, I’m thankful. My faith has never come to me easy, and for a long time I questioned it constantly. I’ve found that when you really invest in something you discover the good and the bad and that's exactly what I experienced with Judaism.

The two people I'm choosing to write about is Patrick Dylan Sanders and Donavon Kane Cleckley. They are similar in four ways. Trustworthy because I can talk to them about anything and they won't tell anyone what I told them. Good friends because they are always there when I need them the most. Funny because they know how to make me laugh when I'm feeling down. They are smart because they have excelled academically. Patrick and I are friends, but we argue more like a married couple when we are around each other. Donavon and I are friends, but we don't get to hang out that much because we live in two different county. I taught them how to stay true to themselves and to never lose sight of who they are. Patrick has taught me that peoples do

similarities. In doing this you can find that two seemingly different people have quite a lot in

Since birth, I have resided in a small town in California. Presently, since I am fond of theology and mathematics, I am pursuing a major in Bible and Theology and I am endeavoring for a minor in STEM. Currently, I am privileged to work as a Math Tutor for a Charter School. My family consists of my parents and me: I am an only child. From this course, I hope to learn different methods of doing logical math so that I may tutor my students in that method.

Diligence and hard work are conveyed by Reuven in his actions. When he got struck in the head by a baseball and could not read, he had books read to him, and he could not wait to read again. While in the library he thought it frustrating, “to be sitting there surrounded by all those journals and not be able to read a thing” (151). Compared to the average teenager who would enjoy to skip school and not read, Reuven has a fervent desire to acquire new information. He studies the Talmud with his father daily and revels in studying math. Having an interest in math sparks him to attempt to read advanced books on symbolic logic such as Principia Mathematica.

It was at my first American Mathematics Competition (AMC) during the first year of high school that I felt hopeless at the field that I was confident in. I was in math team from 2nd to 5th grade as well as 9th grade till now. I believe I was an good math student, easily memorizing the information needed to get high 90's for my grades and recalling old information learned throughout the year every single year. Even now, I easily got 800 for my math SAT and math 2 Subject test. But it is during the AMC that it feels like everything I thought I learned was obsolete. Unless used properly everything that I learned would be useless and only wasted more time. Halfway through the test, I felt like it was impossible to complete until I finished one

Learning more about another individual can be interesting in ways that you didn’t know you had similarities. While I am competitive in a way Waverly could relate to, our family has impacted us in different ways and different styles to get us to this point. Although Waverly and I come from different backgrounds, we both have some similarities, and differences, about problem solving and our personality.

Whether it's trying strange food like quail eggs, searching for bargains at flea markets, or singing Broadway songs at the top of our lungs, my aunt, Lisa Vogel, and I have enjoyed many unique experiences together and developed a very close relationship. Lisa lives close to Minneapolis and she is a teacher at a special needs program for students after high school. She is very involved in theatre, loves to sing, is involved at her church, is a great cook (and hey, I definitely benefit from her marvelous fettuccini alfredo), enjoys craft projects, and especially loves her nieces and nephews and her dog Lulu Cupcake. Lisa is so important to me because of the inspiration she gives me, her caring and loving nature, and the experiences we've had

¬¬¬¬¬April of 2011 was a historic month in the annals of my life. Stepping up to the bimah and reciting aliah for the Torah and donning a Tallis—prayer shawl—for the first time. After that day, my Bar Mitzvah, I had transcended into Jewish adulthood. Ever since I was little, I’ve felt extremely proud to be a participating member in Jewish communities across three states.

Geometry and Algebra are so crucial to the development of the world it is taught to every public high school in the United States, around 14.8 million teenagers each year (National Center for Education Statistics). Mathematics is the engine powering our world; our stocks, economy, technology, and science are all based off from math. Math is our universal and definite language “I was especially delighted with the mathematics, on account of the certitude and evidence of their reasonings.” (Rene Descartes, 1637).

I learned a lot of facts about Judaism that I had previously been ignorant to. I had no idea that we (Christians & Jews) maintained the same bible (The Old Testament) but that we interpreted certain events differently, such as Adam and Eve. “In Judaism, each and every human being is free to choose good or evil because each person stands before God in the same relationship that Adam and Eve did” (Esposito 77). I was unaware that Judaism did not believe in “original sin.” I had no knowledge of the fact that Jews did not believe that Christ was resurrected from the dead. I found it interesting how Jews have split into separate groups – Reform Jews, who believe that Judaism is a cultural inheritance and that neither the laws nor beliefs are

With all the breakthrough technology and incredibly advanced lifestyles that the modern world delivers, it also very often sacrifices on one’s spiritual identity and a sense of belonging. Many people put a lot of importance on such aspects of their lives and sometimes fulfill this intangible hole with religion. It is safe to say that one of the vivid examples of people who actively practise a sense of belonging among themselves are Jews. Their thousands of years old culture still exists today as many of them carefully observe the oldest customs and rituals; here, different interpretations of religious symbolism are not crucially important as celebrating helps them stay true to their roots, shape a sense of identity, unity and even eternity