My Daughters: Starting on Their Jewish Journey

Thailand is a hard place to be a Diaspora Jew.  Not in the sense that one is subjected to antisemitism (although there is some in the Thai media and among some people) and it’s not a daily struggle.  It’s more of being a stranger in a strange land…which is, of course, often the feeling for an expat living overseas….or a Diaspora Jew!

There is a robust Israeli community in Thailand that is very tight-knit.  With ongoing Hebrew classes, a shared language and the rather normal instinct to be “among your kind” it feels like the Israeli Jews in Thailand do a tremendous job maintaining their “Israeliness” and “Jewishness.”

It’s harder for Diaspora Jews in Thailand as there are not so many of us – certainly much fewer than Israelis – and there is no synagogue, community center, place to congregate to be with other Jews.  Chabad does an amazing job at offering events and dinners but often, for Diaspora Jews, it’s not the experience that resonates the most with us.

With this in mind, I realized I had to do something to start to give my daughters a Jewish experience that goes beyond our at home Friday Shabbat prayers and Saturday Havdalah celebration.

Fifty years ago, I experienced a seminal Jewish experience when I went to Camp Tel Noar overnight Jewish day camp in New Hampshire in America.  I never felt more like a Jew than when several hundred of us sang the Birkat Hamazon after meals.  When we bunked with 15 other Jewish boys from the area, participated in the “Color War” competition and played on softball teams with a lineup of 9 Jews (!), it was meaningful, powerful and memorable.  We were amongst all Jews and it felt, well, just right.

For my daughters, through the generous support of anonymous donors – Maimonedes second level of charity praises charity when the giver doesn’t know who he/she is giving to and the receiver doesn’t know know who the charity comes from – last month, I was able to send my daughters to Camp Grossman day camp in Westwood, Massachusetts in the US.

Never before were my daughters so surrounded by Jews, doing Jewish things and just being happy at a camp dedicated to a Jewish Summer experience.

They learned Jewish songs – Bim Bam was a big hit – used their creative hands in arts and crafts, participated in theater, played Ga Ga (a version of dodgeball), swam in the Camp’s lake, worked out puzzles and so much more.  Jewish stories were told, Hebrew songs sung and communal meals brought the campers together as one community.

Every day they came back with huge smiles on their faces.  For me, I knew – in my heart – with a tremendous sense of satisfaction — that I had started them on their journey of being with, smiling with and living life with Jews.  It was a fantastic beginning.

One day my daughters returned from camp singing a song they had learned at Camp Grossman.  Some of the lyrics include:

“Wherever you go, there’s always someone Jewish,
You’re never alone, when you say you’re a Jew.
So when you’re not home, and you’re somewhere kind of…”new-ish,”
The odds are, don’t look far, ’cause they’re Jewish too.

“Amsterdam, Disneyland, Tel Aviv
Oh they’re miles apart,
But when we light the candles on Sabbath eve,
We share in the prayer in one of our hearts.

“Wherever you go, there’s always someone Jewish
You’re never alone, when you say you’re a Jew.
So when you’re not home, and you’re somewhere kind of
“new-ish,”
The odds are, don’t look far, ’cause they’re Jewish too.
The odds are, don’t look far, they’re Jews just like you.”

Tears welled in my eyes.

It was perfect.

Mission accomplished.