1. It was only after her mother embarked on a spiritual
journey that Hanna Bergman learned about Judaism, not because
her father is a Holocaust survivor from Czechoslovakia.
In fact Hanna was already 13 when she learned of her
father’s past. That’s when her Christian-born mother’s wide-reaching religious
search ultimately led the family to the door of the local synagogue.
One Friday afternoon in 1997, Hanna returned from school to a novel sight.
“The table was all in white, filled with food and candle holders. My
mother sat us down and said, ‘We’re Jewish now. We’re going to start keeping
Shabbat. We don’t use electricity on that day and we’re going to keep
kosher.’ I had to phone my friend and tell her I wouldn’t be going out with her
that night.”
After an intensive year of her mother reading and
learning, the next year the entire family converted. “It made my father very
happy,” Hanna recalls. And that’s when they learned his whole story. Having
lost his father in the camps, he had been unable to speak of his experiences.
“He’d get upset when we’d ask him questions so we didn’t really probe too
much”.
Hanna decided to live her dream – and her parents’ --
with her first visit to Israel two years ago, to participate in the Mayanot
women’s program for three months. (She follows on the heels of her brother, who
made aliyah and served in the IDF six years ago).
In a voice that revealed her South African roots, having
also spent many years in her mother’s native country of Namibia, Hanna
described her own journey, including the pivotal moment when a Cape Town rabbi
told her about the Mayanot program. “I only knew that I wanted to increase my
Yiddishkeit in Israel and the name Mayanot kept coming up again and again.”
Hanna’s favorite class was “Halacha,” she shared
without hesitation. “I’m a person who loves structure, so I love Jewish law.
It’s about committing to Hashem in definite ways. I also
enjoy Chassidut; it’s an inner refinement, a whole new way of looking at life, and
it’s also amazing.” These are not things most of us are able to think about in
our ordinary lives, she added. “When you learn how to serve G-d with your whole
self, it puts your ego in the right proportion and moves you out of ruts you’re
stuck in. With teachers so knowledgeable but also so open-mined and patient,
here you are free to become who you were meant to be."
#MyMayanot
www.mayanot.edu
If you are interested in being featured, or sending us a testimonial about your experience at Mayanot, please email us at: [email protected]
#MyMayanot
www.mayanot.edu
If you are interested in being featured, or sending us a testimonial about your experience at Mayanot, please email us at: [email protected]