תִּקּוּן בֵּית פִילִיפִּינִים

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Hillelin’ with Melanin — created by Tessa Palisoc ’20 and Nicole Spring ’20.5 — is a social group that celebrates the students’ intersectional identities and increases their visibility on campus. https://t.co/FAa2eUqLq6

— UnitedColorsJudaism (@ColorsofJudaism) September 20, 2018

TESSA PALISOC: I’m not made of fractions; I’m not this percent Jewish and this percent Filipina. I’m one person who is both.

NAOMI GREENWALD

JIHELAH GREENWALD: When I was younger I loved to draw trees with my family tree written on top of the picture. For some people drawing their family tree makes them feel connected to their heritage, but for me, it has been isolating. 

On both sides of my family -- from my great-grandparents generation in the canopy, to all of my extended cousins in the lower limbs -- it seems like everyone is alike until me and my sister. 

On my dad's tree, everyone is Jewish.

On my mom's tree, everyone is Filipino. 

I've always felt that me and my sister, are neither. 

But this year, I decided, I don't want to be neither anymore. I want to be both. 

This November, it was unseasonably warm. But at Shabbat in Noah's living room, I found myself shivering. Not from cold, but from the primal inherited terror of expulsion, that kept my ancestors alive, and they passed on to me. 

I looked at my new friends, thought about my Jewish grandfather who had just passed away and how happy he would be to see me in Jewish company, then I thought of the Filipinos in my family tree and said "this is my first Jewish space. I don’t feel like I belong here. I don’t feel like I can make demands, but I need to. I need this space to be inclusive of all Jewish experiences. I need it to be anti-racist. because my people are Jewish. and my people are Asian too." 

My demand hung in the air. And over the next days and weeks, my cohort connected me to writing by Jews of color and their friends who were Asian Jews, and I knew they were making space for me as a Filipino American Jew. 

In April, I found out that in my mother's hometown, Balaanga, Bataan, my Lolo has passed away. 

Elliya led Shabbat that week. And when she got to the mourners kaddish we meet eyes and I said "Roman Orpano," and as I looked at her, I let myself cry for the first time since losing my second grandfather. 

And now, it’s June and I still barely believe that I can be Filipina and Jewish. but when I need assurance, I turn to my Jewish community and know that they see me as the strong base of two different family trees. someone who is fully connected to both.