Young Professional Discovers Jewish Identity, One Step at a Time

A modern dance instructor in Kharkhov Ukraine, Sasha, 26, grew up knowing little about his Judaism other than the fact that he was Jewish.

"In our family there was no mention ever about us being Jewish. There was no meaning or relationship to being Jewish," says Sasha.

But the story of reconnecting to his Jewish roots is a familiar one today to young Jewish people in the former Soviet Union—a generation that spent their early years without much, if any, knowledge of their Jewish heritage.

Similar to his experience learning how to dance, Sasha's path towards self-identification as a Jew at first came in very small steps. The first stage was when his dance troupe was invited to perform at a Shabbaton at the JDC-supported Kharkhov Jewish Community Center (JCC).

"This was the first time in my life that I had ever set my foot into anything that was Jewish," he says. "I can’t explain it but I felt something in my heart when I watched the ceremonies taking place on that Shabbat. There was such a spirit of unity," adds Sasha. "It was that spirit of feeling a part of something special that started to draw me in."

This experience was a turning point that prompted Sasha to examine, tentatively at first, what he might be missing.

"It was a strange and exhilarating sensation," he says. "The celebration was about who I was and yet I knew absolutely nothing about my background."

Following the Shabbaton, Sasha's inquisitiveness quickly progressed to a consuming thirst for knowledge, and leapt to a craving to identify with anything that was Jewish.

His inquiry led him to participate in Metsuda, a JDC-sponsored young Jewish leadership course.

"I was discovering a culture that I had stood apart from, and now I felt I wanted to do something to help my newfound Jewish community."

That something turned out to be dance.

"I asked myself what I could do with my talent that might help my people?" shares Sasha. "What could I do to start exposing young people like myself—who were searching, maybe subconsciously, for some deeper meaning in their lives—to the many ways of discovering their identities?"

And so Sasha started teaching hip-hop classes at the Kharkov JCC, attracting hundreds of youth in their teens and twenties—young people who found themselves entering a Jewish environment for the first time.

"I thought, let them first walk through the doors and let them have some fun," says Sasha. "And slowly, slowly they will learn and will become more connected to their Jewish roots and community."

"Like me, they will soon know and become proud of who they are."

June 2008