How Sweet It Is: Jewish Culture Thrives On Staten Island.

As we get ready to welcome in the year 5770 tonight, I feel it appropriate to mention that on an island, where a majority of the population is Italian-Americans, Jewish culture still manages to flourish and draws interest from people within and outside the Jewish faith.

Although, Staten Island's Jewish population is quite small compared to the other boroughs, we're still seeing Jewish culture thrive mainly due to the various clubs and organizations that are geared to the Jewish Youth of Staten Island. The Jewish Community Center and the College of Staten Island's Hillel Chapter have done a great job in attracting youths to their programs and not only teens of the Jewish faith. There are many students, who are members of Hillel that are not Jewish, but have taken an interest in learning about our culture and that's a beautiful thing. I have friends who have gone to visit Israel and they tell me that it's an experience like no other. I'm hoping to make a visit to Israel soon because I would like to get a chance to experience it myself.

The Jewish religion and culture is a wonderful thing to learn about. Although I don't encourage anyone to drop their faith for another, I feel that everyone should be entitled to experience the cultural aspects of other religions. I don't want to go to deep into religious aspects, but I will say that the Jewish religion in a lot of ways echoes the ideas of existentialism. The Jewish faith often comes together to make life decisions and we often choose to live in the moment. For a religion, who has often been found to be victim of persecution and slavery, you would find it hard to believe that most people in Tel Aviv spending their nights partying and having a grand old time. Even outside of Israel, we see a tight bond between the Jewish faith. There appears to be a great balance between the relationship within our faith and our relationship with other worldly religions. We really enjoy the fact that our culture is still in existence today and although we like to share with everyone else, we won't go out of our way to do it. As I mentioned earlier, Jewish culture provides a wonderful experience for those who encounter it and if you've had little or no exposure to it then I suggest you take a look.

This has been Yechiel Akiva speaking words of wisdom.