A Stranger in a Strange Land

By Laura Weisskopf Bleill

I grew up in a bubble. A bubble where most of the kids were just like me.

They were Jewish.

I grew up where it wasn’t uncommon to see Hanukkah decorations in the windows of every store in December, where public schools are closed on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur (the holiest days of the Jewish year), where seventh grade is one big party circuit with bar and bat mitzvahs every weekend.

So when it became clear to me that I would be raising my children in Central Illinois — my Jewish children in Central Illinois — I was admittedly concerned. How would I instill their Jewish identity when opportunities seemed so limited?

Then I remember a song I learned way back in the day: “Wherever you go, there’s always someone Jewish.” Jews don’t live just in New York or Chicago or Miami. There are Jews everywhere, even in Central Illinois.

Over the years living here I’ve found much humor in being Jewish in a cornfield. And in my column “Being a Jew in C-U,” I’ll dish on what it means to be just that. Maybe you’ll learn something about your neighbor you didn’t know before. Or maybe you can relate.

So while I no longer feel like a stranger in a strange land, I would give anything for a decent bagel place.

Related posts:

1. Being a Jew in C-U: The Kosher Thanksgiving (and other anomalies)
2. Being a Jew in C-U: The People in Your Neighborhood
3. Being a Jew in C-U: December Dilemma, Part II
4. Being a Jew in C-U: From Maxwell Street to Neil Street