Being isolated from community tests one’s commitment to the values and practices that normally bring that community together. This is what the experience of being a Jew in China has taught me.

I grew up in the warm embraces of Judaism, spending many hours at Yavneh, a Jewish day school in Los Gatos. I led the “All-Inclusive Jew Crew” at my Catholic high school (Notre Dame in San Jose), served as a quasi-regular Torah chanter at Congregation Sinai in San Jose and co-led Shabbat services at Berkeley Hillel. Constantly surrounded by Jewish community at home, I developed a strong sense of myself as a Jew in the world.

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