Tobiah Abramson looks like any other fourth-year Carleton student. The only thing that can identify Abramson as a Jewish student is the small star of David he wears on a silver chain around his neck.
Abramson is 22 and is in his final year at Carleton University for history and political science. He is the vice-president for social events at Hillel Ottawa, an organization whose aim is to enrich the lives of Jews in Ottawa, according to their website. Abramson feels like his values have been enhanced by Judaism.
“I don’t think Judaism changes my life, I’d say it adds on to my life,” he says.
Each week, Abramson attends classes four days, working three days, and then he participates in three or four events between his Jewish fraternity Alpha Epsilon Pi, and Hillel. Most of Abramson’s friends are Jewish because of the amount of time he spends at these activities.
“It’s natural that I would become friends with most of these people, and for me personally I actively sought out to find Jewish friends, and this is how I became part of that circle,” Abramson says.
Reporting by Anne McKinnon
Produced by Fraser Tripp and Oliver Sachgau
Abramson says he was used to everybody understanding his faith before he attended university.
“It was only here when I first started in [residence] where people were like, ‘I’ve never met a Jew before.’ That’s the first time that’s ever happened to me,” he says. He says he doesn’t find it offensive that people don’t know about his religion but he gets a lot of questions.
“‘What is this,’ ‘I thought Jews were supposed to do this, but you’re not doing this,’ but it never evolves into an argument,”Abramson says.
Abramson also says he doesn’t have a problem when people joke about his faith.
“There would be a lot of jokes, and stuff where they’re not really thinking about it or they just think it’s funny, and I’d laugh along because I think it is funny,” he says.
Abramson is a Reform Jew, which is not as strict as other Jewish movements. He attends Shabbat Friday nights, but skips service Saturday mornings to go to work. He wears a yarmulke (a skullcap) in service and during high holidays.
Although he says it’s rare, Abramson says that he has experienced anti-Semitism, though not always directly.
“In Hull, a friend of mine was chased by a couple of guys for being Jewish, supposedly. People randomly on the bus will heckle you for being Jewish if you show yourself being Jewish by wearing the kippah,” he says.
Abramson says his faith doesn’t affect his diet, although he tries to stay away from pork.
“It’s probably from my upbringing, not eating pork in the house, even though we didn’t keep kosher, we just didn’t eat it,” he says.
Abramson says his whole family is Jewish. His dad is from Israel, and Abramson has been there twice in his life. People can sometimes become frustrated with their religion, and Abramson says he is no exception. He says that he will come across stories or ideas that don’t make sense to him.
“A Rabbi recently said that we should burn all our iPhones because they give us too much information about the world,” he says.
In Abramson’s opinion, technology shouldn’t be an issue in day-to-day life for those who practice Judaism.
“I think if you want to observe the Shabbat that technology isn’t going to stop you from doing that,” Abramson says.
Abramson says he would also prefer to marry a Jewish woman, and finds it hard to meet other Jewish women on the same level of faith as himself in Ottawa.
“It’s pretty important to me. I would have a hard time marrying a non-Jewish person, and if I did, would our kids be raised Jewish,” he says.
