Galus

I know that one of the reasons A.S. started this blog, was to write about our adventures in a very small Jewish community. As one of her friends said, when she looked up where Victoria is, she now understood the meaning of ‘a schlep and a half’. Here is an example of how far in galus we are here. A few weeks ago I was excited to discover that we were having a Jewish film festival in Victoria, and more so when I learned that a movie I’d wanted to see for ages was playing. Then last week I was looking at the schedule and discovered that the festival was starting on Friday night. With that one item, I realized how disconnected we are from the rest of the Jewish world here.

Having to travel to Vancouver for various food stuffs or to satisfy the craving for a burger in a restaurant all became very small, when I realized that the film festival was starting on Shabbos. It wasn’t that there was anything on that night I wanted to see. No, it was the fact that the Jewish community here is so divorced from our basic mitzvot, that a Jew would begin the film festival he is running on Shabbos, and that Jews would attend it. I went to see a film (Ushpizin) motzei Shabbos, and ran into people I know from the community, and in talking with them discovered how many of them were there the night before (okay, I know that I should probably not have attended on principal, but it was a chance to watch a frum Jewish movie with other Jews, and one I’d wanted to see for the better part of a year).

I find myself struggling now. Do we move to be in a ‘real’ Jewish community, or do we continue to work to try and inspire Yiddishkeit in the community here? I admire A.S. for moving to be here with me, not only away from her friends, but away from a community where being frum is not considered weird. While watching Ushpizin, people in the audience were laughing at things we view as being normal as a frum couple. While my dream is for us to get other Jews together and to setup a moshav somewhere on Vancouver Island, I am now struggling with whether or not we’d be better off living somewhere with a strong pre-existing community.