Narrative Summary
Interview with Roni Balzam by Andi Burroughs
Roni Balzam was born in Haifa, Israel, in the 1990s and as I soon found out, growing up
in Israel was very different from growing up in America. Israel, as she puts it, is considered to be
a “religious state”. She explained that as a religious state they celebrate all of the Jewish
holidays, and when it comes time for the Sabbath day, stores are not open on Saturday's, or even
Friday nights.
Growing up in a home with two parents that practiced Judaism helped her become who
she is today. Not only did that determine she would be Jewish, but it also determined which
“sect” of Judaism she would be a part of. She considers herself to be a part of the Conservative
branch of Judaism. She considers herself to be more Conservative than Orthodox because she
doesn't consider herself to be very “religious”. As a Conservative family, their synagogue has
separation between men and women, as well as only having male Rabbi's.
I asked her when she began practicing her religion, and she explained to me that it begins
at birth. She celebrated all of the holidays with her friends and family, including fasting on Yom
Kippur. In her family, it is tradition for everyone to gather for a huge meal on Friday night
because it's not convenient for everyone to get together during the week. Roni says she loved this
time because it was a time to gather with her friends and family to welcome the Sabbath to the
house.
At the age of twelve, she celebrated her Bat Mitzvah. She described a big party with all
of her family and some of her closest friends. For her, the Bat Mitzvah represented her becoming
a young woman.
In 2010, Roni came to America to receive a college education at Missouri State
University, while also being a part of the swim team. When asked if her religious practices
changed once she got to America, she replied that they had changed some. She went on to say
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that she was working on trying to celebrate more of the holidays that she had celebrated back
home. Trying to have a nice dinner on Friday nights has become very important to her. If
anything, that is one thing she misses the most about home. She says it is very hard to celebrate
all of the major holidays here in America, including Passover and their celebration of the new
year.
When she was asked how her spirituality influenced her daily life, she replied that it was
a part of who she was as a person. The greatest influence in her spiritual journey was growing up
in Israel. She elaborated by saying that she didn't believe she would have had the same
spirituality if she had grown up any place else. In Israel, they begin learning about the Bible in
second grade and continue learning about it until their senior year of high school. She explained
that learning about the Bible was not to make them more religious, but it was to tell its story and
explain to them why they followed certain rules within their religion.
Her favorite Jewish holiday is a three way tie: Shavuot, Passover, and Purim. Food-wise,
she considered Shavuot to be her favorite holiday. During this holiday they would eat a lot of
food that came from nature and a lot of dairy products, including cheesecakes and pies.
Tradition-wise, her favorite holiday is Passover because to Jewish people it represents something
that they all celebrate. It doesn't matter if your Orthodox, Reform, or Conservative, the Passover
is something that brings their people together. Lastly, her favorite holiday that was more for fun
is Purim. Purim is similar to our version of Halloween, where everyone dresses up and just has a
good time.
I later asked Roni how the other “sects” of Judaism differed from her own and was given
some good information. With Reform Judaism, she explained that women and men both sat
together in the synagogues and sometimes even have a woman as their Rabbi. Orthodox on the
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other hand seemed to be the other extreme of Judaism compared to the Conservative branch. She
told me that they don't like to serve in the army, don't work very often, have a lot of children, and
are very strict about their practice of Judaism. The strictness, she explained, was the reason why
she could never consider herself to be Orthodox.
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