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Episode # 2 of the OTD Podcast. Here I interview Andrew who grew up attending the Rae Kushner Yeshiva High School in Livingston, New Jersey. We discuss some of his struggles challenging the Jewish Teachings he grew up with. Specifically, how he was able to reconcile some of the conflicts he had with his family with his beliefs diverging from theirs. We also discuss some of his Libertarian political beliefs and how they relate to his Orthodox Jewish upbringing. 

Below is a snippet of the interview transcript:

[00:00:00] Jeff: [00:00:00] So my first question is, where are you from? How did that place and those people that lived in that place influence your life.

[00:00:08] What about influencing my life? Okay. I'll say it again. Where are you from and how did that place and those people where you're from influence your life?

[00:00:17] Andrew : [00:00:17] Sure. So I'm from Northern New Jersey. I grew up in a small little town called Bernardsville, New Jersey.

[00:00:28] I had never spent a day out of Jewish day school or Yeshiva. I'm not sure if a particular location influenced my life so much. I kind of feel like modern Orthodox communities are the same everywhere you go. I don't know if I have much to say on that topic. How they, each place is a little bit like the still the neighborhood might have some interesting nuances that are a little bit geographically.

[00:00:55] I actually grew up, I lived not directly in the Jewish community [00:01:00] that I was a part of. I lived a little further away and drove 30 minutes every day to a Kushner Yeshiva where I was for middle school and high school. My parents actually became religious later in life. They both grew up somewhat conservative.

[00:01:16] To a larger extent, my dad had kind of a religious awakening when I was around seven or eight. Something happened in one day, but it was slow over the course of years and years and years, and he became more and more religious than.

[00:01:33] My school was a Jewish school that wasn't associated with any movement. there's a term for that.

Jeff: It's called non-denominational

Andrew I went to a  non-denominational lower school, and the fifth grade, and then, you know, as they were becoming more religious, they switched me to Kushner which was a modern Orthodox school for middle school and high school.

[00:01:52] Jeff: And what would you say your father was sort of Bal-Teshuvah?

Andrew:  So it's kind of interesting. I don't, it's, you wouldn't use that term for himself though. He [00:02:00] He wouldn't use that term for himself because I don't think he believes he's become religious as he should be.

[00:02:07]So what's kind of interesting is my parents were somewhat a conservodox, actually, I would say when I was growing up. So they, when, I mean growing up and as I got older they became more religious. So after. after I was maybe 12 or 11, that's when they really, I think they peaked in terms of their religiosity.

[00:02:25] And so, what that meant really was that my, they, they definitely believed Orthodox Judaism was correct and they wished they were closer to Orthodox Judaism, but because of the circumstances of living further away from the community, it did present some problems in terms of Shabbat and driving. So for example, they would, they were, the, what it ended up being was they would never, you know, touch your TV or electronics on Shabbat but they would be a little more okay with turning the lights on and off.

[00:02:50] It was more about the spirit of Shabbat than it was about holding to the exact letter of the law.