My encounters with the Jewish community

My encounters with the Jewish community

I grew up in the “Jewish Quarter” of Alexandria. In light of this, I generally dislike using the word “Jew” to completely define someone: in my eyes, it is a form of sectarian reductionism which flattens the inherent complexity of an individual. I only employ the term here so the reader understands the context. My first face-to-face encounter with a Jewish person was about ten years ago in New York. In a hotel lobby, I sat near a group of Israel…