🧵This is me in November 2018, a few days after I left in middle of my Shana Bet year in seminary. It was supposed to be another 5 months of bliss learning Torah in E’Y.
After Sukkot, I realized that the scholarship fund my seminary recommended was a scam & I was being groomed.
Rabbi Rubin would force me to spend hours with him on the phone. He’d send me emails and texts with tons of emojis and friendly language. When I’d ask him for the promised $ he’d evade the topic or tell me I was being disrespectful. I was told “he’s just quirky.”
To be accepted by the fund you had to give a $175 application fee. That seemed sketchy to my 19 year old brain, but it was a small number compared to the thousands of dollars I’d be receiving from the scholarship. The interview took 8 hours but in the end I was accepted.
I’m really upset with this post put out by @JoanofJudah on instagram.
I will break my apolitical stance for this.
I can say the exact same thing about the Republican Party: "all the neo nazis and white supremacists are voting for trump."
90% of my family are democrats.
I’m disappointed with the comments I received from yesterday’s tweet, but not surprised.
I also grew up “different.” I may not be queer, but I was an easy target for bullies.
I was a chubby kid. Wore my sister’s hand-me-downs. I didn’t shop at the expensive Jewish stores 1/5🧵
My parents got divorced when I was 5 years old. I didn’t fit into the Bais yaakov system. We had a TV and didn’t listen to Jewish music. I didn’t have the “Yeshivish” accent. My father was a baal teshuva and couldn’t help me with my hebrew homework. 2/5
I was always very small. I was the weirdo in camp who had to visit the nurse for my daily growth hormone shots. I was the GO class president whom people claimed was “chosen because no one else wanted to do it.” People were jealous of my high GPA and wanted to see me fail. — 3/5