This article was produced as part of JTA’s Teen Journalism Fellowship , a program that works with Jewish teens around the world to report on issues that affect their lives.

“I don’t know if I believe in God, but I think I like this Jewish thing.”

I was in elementary school when I said this to my mother, a rabbi. She responded with something that would forever stick with me: “You don’t have to believe in God to be Jewish. For some people, Judaism is community.”

My sense of self has always been intertwined with Jewish community. As the son of a rabbi, who also attended a Jewish elementary school, my childhood was intrinsically connected with Judaism. However, after 6th grade, I left my insular Jewish community and moved to another city. Since then, I’ve been searching for my own Jewish

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