By dcc
I have a conundrum: I consider myself a Classical Reform Jew. I do not view the mitzvot as a to-do (or to-don't) list. I feel connected to ethical regulations, while I have no desire to return to the Temple. I am a Kohen, but have publicly renounced my priesthood. However, I don't eat pork or shellfish at home.

Reform, not Reformed, Judaism is fluid and over the years, the Movement has been in a constant state of flux, being true to this name. Some of our younger members have seen fit to return to traditions long regarded as out of date, while older members of our community remain Classical in their observance. I fall somewhere in between; I suppose I am a neo-Classical Reform Jew.

As a NFTYite I thought I would be "more religious" by wearing a kippah and (sometimes) praying three times a day. When I was on EIE in high school, I started and stopped and started again to wear tzitzi'ot.  In college, I said I was just Jewish--in a post-denominational, anti-institutional kind of way. But somewhere between being a revolutionary and noticing that my revolution already had been fought and won, I re-affiliated myself with Reform Judaism.

I worked at Greene Family Camp, where I met my fiancé, moved to New York and started working for the Movement as a Legislative Assistant for the Commission on Social Action. Much of the joy I found in leading services or teaching Jewish content came from the idea that I was helping other people connect to Judaism. God didn't play a role in this feeling for me; personally it was and is people based. So I started to ask myself: Why are you wearing a cloth around your shoulders if you don't feel a connection? Why are you covering your head with a kippah of cloth stitched together by slaves in Southeast Asia? Why are you saying words you disagree with? So I stopped doing those things, but this time I didn't start again.

However, I still had deep connection to kashrut. For much of my life, my dad was a caterer and both of my parents would compete to make the best school lunches for my sister me. (Don't tell my dad, but my mom really nailed the turkey-to-tomato-to-lettuce-to-mustard-to-mayo ratio. She made said sandwiches on that really nice multi-grain bread, but I digress.) In my family, "soul food" is bagels, lox, white fish and chopped liver. Having said that, I love all kinds of ethnic or "soul" foods because of the passion that comes through the taste--along with the salt. Food holds a power over me and it helps me connect to people, my people. And that is why I don't have pork or shellfish in my home.

There is a passage in the original Pittsburgh Platform that has long spoken to me. The seminal Reform document explains that we should keep the ethical commandments and "maintain only such ceremonies as elevate and sanctify our lives." As a questioning and changing Jew, there is one thing that is constant in my life and that is food. I connect to people through food. I connect to family through food. So why shouldn't I elevate the practice of eating?

I readily acknowledge that my practice is not consistent. In pervious manifestations of my Jewish identity I would call myself a hypocrite. But these days, I call myself a neo-Classical Reform Jewish foodie.

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