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A Jewish Girl is born
I have always been Jewish. I was born to a Jewish mother and father and grew up in a culturally rich and religiously rich Jewish household. My family identified with the Conservative Jewish community and we were very dedicated to the community and to the Conservative way of life. I learned to value halacha but also to view halacha critically. How can halacha fit into the modern world? How far can we bend halacha to fit our will? -
First day of school
From 1993 through 2005 I studied at the Associated Hebrew School, a Community Jewish day school. I was in the 'dati stream' which meant that all of my peers kept Shabbat and Kosher. My Jewish Day school made me who I am today. The school placed a lot of emphasis on Rashi and the dinim of holidays which were taught completely in Hebrew. From school I developed a vast Jewish knowledge and a wonderful chevre of likeminded individuals. -
Entering a new world
In the summer of 1997, I began a professional acting career along with my brother and sister. The acting world was completely foreign to me and with it came many challenges. I was, for the first time, exposed to non-Jewish people. I often had to explain my practices and choices, such as why I was unable to work on a Saturday, or why I was unable to partake in certain foods. Acting around my Jewish practice was tough but it made me value my religion much more than I had before. -
My bat mitzvah
To be honest, I don't think my bat mitzvah meant very much to me. It happened, I had fun and I was very proud of my accomplishments. Still, in my memory it was an event like any other and I cannot attach too much developmental signifcance to it. For this reason, I have included it in my timeline. -
First day of High School
For four years I studied at the Community Hebrew Academy of Toronto on the RichmondHill campus (CHAR). Similar to my Associated Hebrew School experience, CHAR helped me grow as a Jewish individual. I continued to find Judaism interesting and was eager to learn more. Entering High School for me also meant retiring from my career as a professional actress. This meant that I had much more time to focus on my study and for extracurriculars. Thus, I joined the United Synangue Youth movement (USY). -
Junior Minyan Chocolate Seder
During High School, I founded and ran a Sarturday morning prayer service for children ages 6 - 12 called Junior Minyan. For me it was a great accomplishment and I learned a lot about teaching Jewish content from this experience. Most notably, I wrote and lead a chocolate Passover seder. It was particularly successful and made me want to pursue informal Jewish education as a potential future career. -
USY Regional Board
In my last year of High School I was elected to be on the USY regional board. With this came responsibilities as well as certain standards to uphold. I was to be completely shomer shabbat and shomer kashrut in accordance with the most strict Conservative definition. Because of that, I started becoming slightly more religious. -
McGill and the Ghetto Shul
I attended McGill University in Montreal and became highly active in the student synagogue there. The expreience opened my eyes to a new kind of Judaism, Modern Orthodoxy. I found a chevre of likeminded individuals, friends who thought it was not only cool to be religious but also to spend time learning and talking about Judaism. The experience made me want to learn more. -
Living with Judaism
I started a video blog called livingwithjudaism. This became my way of continuing my Jewish studies while connecting to my acting background. My vlog made me want to learn even more and I decided to apply to Pardes for the summer program -
Pardes
...I stayed a little longer than just the summer. Who knows what the future holds?