The Blacks and The Jewish On My Perspective (part ONE)
Sunday, March 30, 2008
Nobody would deny that their exchange year has meant a lot upon their life. Neither would I. This is not a hyperbole, nor a lie. I would even say that my exchange year has “brain-washed” me in a good way. This is my story…
I was born and raised in a conservative Javanese Muslim family. If I track down my family tree up to my great, great grandparents, I can tell there is not much diversity in it. People were all bonded as Javanese. Well, there is a far-related-grandmother who was from Sulawesi Island. And my step grandmother was also a Catholic American who then moved to Indonesia once she got married to my grandfather. Other than that, believe me, there is none from somewhere else.
Apparently, most of my family members live in Java. And ...that could be one of the reasons why I have never had a chance to fly out of Java Island, beside due to the expensive fare of the travel and other nontrivial reasons. However, there was a call inside this heart, to break this locked-up life, and meet the rest of the people who live on earth so that I can tell how they live their life. That was why I chose to go to United States, instead of choosing another country. I wanted to experience their so-called melting pot—where everybody from all parts of the world come, mix together, and make a possible highly diverse society. So my thought was, if I go to United States, I would not have to go to many countries to meet their people, because many ‘samples’ of the world’s people are living in United States. My parents, especially my father, was anxious at the first time he heard me start talking about leaving for United States, most probably due to my status as a covered-young-muslimah. But after I tried to assure them as reasonably as I could, they started agreeing my dream.
I ended up leaving Java Island, Indonesia, for Ohio, United States. I was so happy at the time I flew away. I started to imagine building the puzzle of my new life, and I just could not wait to begin the adventure. With the support from my teachers and friends back home there, I became even more popped out for this upcoming new life.
Suddenly, the situation changed significantly at the time I learnt that my host father, is a person who I did not expect to become my host father, by the fact that he is a Jewish. I actually had not known a lot already about Judaism and its believers, but what I saw from medias was the fact that there is a chronic current issue between Jewish and Muslims which is centralized in Israel-Palestine. In the other hand, I felt just comfortable with my host mother who is a Catholic, because at school in Indonesia, I have got some Catholic friends. Despite the lack of my knowledge in Catholicism, I know that my Catholic friends are nice, and we have been living peacefully since the first time we knew each other.
As you might think, I was a stereotypical individual. My head was full of prejudices, and it was even worse because not only religion that matters to me, but also….. race.
So the place where I live in Ohio, is a suburb of Cleveland called as Shaker Heights, where there is a huge size of not only Jewish, but also black community living there. Yes, there are a looooot of African-Americans. Even in my school, the blacks occupy almost two third of total number of the students. To be honest, I was not feeling comfortable with the stigmas inside my head that was all derived from the media I saw before. They stated, “Black people tend to be criminals.” Or “black people in United States committed hate crime upon other races.” Or “most of the prisoners in United States’ jails are the blacks,” and so on and so forth.
(to be continued to part TWO...)
April 04, 2008 10:02 PM
i wonder why there are hardly any jews in indonesia..??
April 12, 2008 3:34 PM
that's what i wondered too.
but you know jews' history never really 'touched' indonesia.
habis ninggalin middle east, pan si bani Israilnya pd naek ke eropa & rusia, terus kebanyakan org2nya jd scientist atw pedagang. tajir deh. betah deh di sana. sampe setelah tragedi holocaust, banyak yg lari ke amrik utara.
ga pernah denger gue ada cerita bani Israil lari ke Indonesia. thats prolly why..thats what i think tho.
April 12, 2008 3:41 PM
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April 12, 2008 3:43 PM
I read from wikipedia...
it says that there's only one synagogue in indonesia, and there r only 2 jewish communities which one is in JKt and another one is in surabaya.
from other sources, i can tell that the number of jewish ppl also less than 100, which is so small...
lagian kayaknya susah jd org yahudi terang2an di indonesia, lo tau sndiri mit banyak org yg benci yahudi di sana. duh..duh. org2 kok saling membenci 1 sm lain.
April 22, 2010 8:49 AM
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