Cultural But Not Religious

By Jason Scharch

“Prayer never spoke to me.” These are honest words from 19-year-old Rutgers student Ezra Dreiblatt, who is an enthusiastic participant in the Jewish community, but somewhat emotionless about the religious aspect of his upbringing. After spending eight months in Israel between his senior year of high school and his freshman year of college, he felt differently about the Jewish culture and religion, therefore causing a shift in his lifestyle. When he returned to the United States, Ezra says he related to the cultural aspects of being Jewish better than ever, however it was his religion that he no longer had a connection with. Dreiblatt told me, “Being in Israel taught me the difference of being culturally and religiously Jewish.” He revealed more about his strict upbringing in a Jewish home, but also how his trip facilitated his change.

Ezra describes himself as a conservative Jewish person, who attended Synagogue on Saturdays throughout all of his life, and always observed the Sabbath. But, as he got older Dreiblatt was able to make more decisions for himself, including the choice in high school to be a little less strict with religious aspects, playing video games on a Friday night for example. He said, “It became more important to me to live my life, and have fun with some friends than to make sure I didn’t use electricity on Friday.” Although his religious strictness varied at times through his life, he always identified with the Jewish culture and population.

Seventeen years old at the time, and looking forward to an experience like no other Ezra was given the chance to spend nine months in Israel, but he ended up learning more about himself than about the Jewish religion. While in Israel Ezra was exposed to varying levels of strictness in regards to Jewish people keeping kosher, as well as their attitudes towards religion as a whole. Ezra said, “The program enforced a certain level of religious strictness, but there were always ways around this. As long as you didn’t draw attention to yourself, it usually wasn’t a problem.” This was the beginning of his transformation to a less religious, and a more lenient person.

The most important experience to him was the last four months he spent in Negev, a desert in Israel where he worked and lived with a small group, providing help at a school and old-age home. He refers to this as one of the best times of his life, connecting with people of varying religious strictness, but all the while embracing the cultural aspect of being Jewish and using this to relate to his peers and friends. This experience further proved the importance to him of certain aspects of being Jewish, such as marrying a Jewish woman, but for now he is content with being more lenient in the aspect of religion. He said, “I’m keeping an open mind toward keeping Kosher or Sabbath again, but right now I’m fine being culturally Jewish.”