Author Archives: Sabrina Pina

Secret Handshake

SP is a current student at California Polytechnic University at San Luis Obispo where she studies Geography and Anthropology. She is originally from Seattle, WA and grew up in a small town nearby. She grew up in a typical American middle-class family. She attended a public high school in Washington where she grew up with a sister and her mother and father. She has a background of being half-Mexican and half Irish/Italian that has in some ways heavily influenced her beliefs as well as her religious beliefs rooted in Catholicism.

Is there anything you learned from your family that you still actively do today? Like a greeting or gesture that is something you feel is unique to you?

SP: Well me and my dad’s side of the family have this secret handshake that my dad made up. At first I think it was just a thing between him, me and my sister but now it has turned in to something all of cousins know how to do. It is really simple it is just some fist bumps and hand grabs and isn’t very hard to remember. It sort has become a family tradition with anyone he is close within the family who is younger. It keeps all of u having something in common that we all know as being the younger generation, we are a bit more separated from the older family in a way.

Do you still remember the handshake and use it regularly?

SP: Yeah, I still remember it, I have known it for almost 15 years now so it is like engrained in my brain forever at this point. I think it is only really used at family gatherings and we don’t have as many of those because of the fact that all of us have mostly gone to college and all the older aunts and uncles are actually getting to an older age where they come to less events because they have moved away or are spending time with other family. It is rare we get together but when we do my dad always asks us and our cousins in we remember it and we always do. It is nice that he still reminds us all in a way that he hasn’t forgotten us or that fact that we all share this secret technique together. Whenever I see people with handshakes it reminds me of my dad and our family.

Analysis:

Handshakes are a dying form of gesture or greeting. It is more common among children in younger ages as a way of bonding or sharing secrets between friends in a school yard setting. IT is now more uncommon since the digital age. People create common emoji messages or snapchats they can send back and forth rather than the significance of handshakes and jumping rope just do not exist after the age of eight or so. Handshakes just do not exist for the most part but used to be a huge form of bonding and communication. I remember when I was younger me and my friends created many handshakes we could share just between one person that made you feel like you had a special connection or unique thing no one else could share. It is sad to see them mostly die out but for those that remain it creates an everlasting bond between you and the other person.

Shivah

KM is a student at the University of Southern California studying architecture. She is from Encino, CA and has lived her whole life in Southern California. She comes from two Israeli parents and has a strong Jewish background as most of her family lives in Israel. She attended a private Jewish high school and learned Hebrew over the course of her school career. She actively participates in many holiday traditions and prayer rituals.

Do you have any traditions for birth or death in Judaism?

KM: After someone passes away, we have a funeral that’s called a Shivah that has some traditions or changes specific to Judaism. It is basically where you must bury them immediately after they die, there is no waiting period or planning of a funeral, they have to be buried straight away. Then you sit and pray for them so it is like we have the funeral after they are already put in the ground.

Are there any variations to this?

KM: Well there are exceptions. For example, when my grandfather died we could not have a Shivah for his because he died on Rosh Hashanah, which is a high holiday. You aren’t allowed to have Shivahs when people die on a high holiday because that is respected over death. You are already praying on the holiday anyways as well so you can sit and pray then just not at the site of where the person is buried. It was sad not to be able to have a Shivah for my grandfather but we respect the high holiday and it is an honor to die on a high holiday.

Analysis:

A Shivah has the same significance as a normal funeral but it has it differences to the normal ceremony and reception. The ceremony is a week-long of sitting and praying for the deceased. It is very important to Jewish people that they bury their dead as soon as possible. There is no true reason for it other than what people deduce from the Torah. The Torah says that a body should be buried within 24 hours unless if on a high holiday where you cannot work. It is very specific yet tells no details why.

March of the Living

KM is a student at the University of Southern California studying architecture. She is from Encino, CA and has lived her whole life in Southern California. She comes from two Israeli parents and has a strong Jewish background as most of her family lives in Israel. She attended a private Jewish high school and learned Hebrew over the course of her school career. She actively participates in many holiday traditions and prayer rituals.

Is there any significant milestone other than a bat mitzva that you have in your young-adult life?

KM: Well when we graduate high school we go on a trip called March of the living where we basically tour all the concentration camps in Europe and travel to meet with others Jews who do it as well. Every year the graduating class at Jewish schools across the world do it and other Jewish organizations do it as well.

How is did that experience or tradition effect you?

KM: It was an amazing experience and it changed my life and my view on my heritage as a Jewish-American. Going to the concentration camps made me very emotional because many of my ancestors went through that experience in WWII. I think that it gave me a better perspective on how close our Jewish community is as well. When we got to meet Jewish people from all over the world and talk to them about our religion it was very comforting that we found solace in other people.

What was the most influential part of the trip?

KM: I think it was the march in general and especially when we went through the forest that people had to walk through or labor in where many people died. The trees were narrow and if someone walked more than 5 yards ahead they would disappear completely which was a scary thing to see how easily one could get lost or run off but they couldn’t for fear of being killed. Also, many people were killed out there which made the silence of the walk eerie and something I will never forget.

Analysis:

The march of the living is a very important trip for young Jewish people. The experience the true persecution of the holocaust and it is extremely eye-opening for most of them. I think it is a week where they focus on their culture and also connecting with others who share the same cultural identity and history. It is a tradition that is a bit newer but, still has had a dramatic effect on Jewish people around the world.

Rosh Hashannah

KM is a student at the University of Southern California studying architecture. She is from Encino, CA and has lived her whole life in Southern California. She comes from two Israeli parents and has a strong Jewish background as most of her family lives in Israel. She attended a private Jewish high school and learned Hebrew over the course of her school career. She actively participates in many holiday traditions and prayer rituals.

What other holidays do you find important to celebrate during the year?

KM: We celebrate a holiday called Rosh Hashanah, it is a Jewish holiday that we are meant to spend together as a family and we do it every year. Usually we go to San Diego for it as well.

What is the significance of the holiday and how is it related to Judaism?

KM: Well Rosh means ‘head’ in Hebrew and Shanah means ‘the year’ which kind of signifies the ‘head of the year’. So, we celebrate it as the Jewish New Year. It is the first high holiday in Judaism that is celebrated. It is kind of like an obligation for us to celebrate it every year but it is also really fun. We eat Hallah bread with honey and apples which is one of the most traditional Jewish foods. It is always in August or September when me and my siblings would be in school, but since we went to a private Jewish school, we always got the holiday off to spend with our family. It was a holiday I always remember being about spending time with your loved ones and celebrating all the things to come in the new year and next few high holidays.

Was this the most important high holiday to you? How does this tradition compare to the other high holidays?

KM: Well because we are all in college now we do not celebrate the holiday as a family anymore because it is too hard to get away from school during the week, especially now that my brother goes to school in Kansas. I have so many fond memories of the holiday but I am sad that we cannot spend it together as often anymore. This high holiday is not nearly as important to me as Hanukah though. That is one of the most well-known and widely celebrated holidays in our religion.

Analysis:

As one of the high holidays, Rosh HaShanah is extremely important in Jewish tradition. It is something that many Jews celebrate in the same way that Chinese people celebrate their own new year at a different time of the year than most Christians and Americans. The holiday is supposed to represent the anniversary of Adam and Eve and their realization of humanity’s role in the world according to God. In temples, you would blow a horn called the shofar in the temple as a ritual although KM does not use this practice.

Shabbat

KM is a student at the University of Southern California studying architecture. She is from Encino, CA and has lived her whole life in Southern California. She comes from two Israeli parents and has a strong Jewish background as most of her family lives in Israel. She attended a private Jewish high school and learned Hebrew over the course of her school career. She actively participates in many holiday traditions and prayer rituals.

Are there any rituals you and your family practice together regularly?

KM: Well we have Shabbat every Friday night to Saturday. We have dinner together and sometimes other family members come like my grandfather. It is more of a day each week of rest. It is a day we liked to spend together and a day of prayer where I can feel connected to my religion even though I don’t go to the temple as much anymore as we used to.

Are there any special rituals you have that you carry out?

KM: We light candles and put them in our window every Friday evening. It is a way to tell that you are Jewish and you are celebrating the Shabbat. That is the kind of thing my parents taught me to do. We do not really consider ourselves as a conservative Jewish family anymore but this is something we still strictly do. Most Jews who are conservative are extremely strict about the Shabbat and temple as weekly things they find of importance. We don’t celebrate the Shabbat as much as we used to after me and my brother and sister went off to college but it is still something that is very important to me.

Analysis:

Shabbat is something that is commonly practiced by many Jews. The rituals and traditions of each family can vary as Jewish folklore often varies slightly from one culture or family to another. The lighting of candles is extremely important to the day of rest. The day of rest is to take away from your common everyday labor and to take it as a day to commit yourself more to your religious practices.