This article was produced as part of JTA’s Teen Journalism Fellowship, a program that works with Jewish teens around the world to report on issues that affect their lives.

“I don’t know if I believe in God, but I think I like this Jewish thing.”

I was in elementary school when I said this to my mother, a rabbi. She responded with something that would forever stick with me: “You don’t have to believe in God to be Jewish. For some people, Judaism is community.”

My sense of self has always been intertwined with Jewish community. As the son of a rabbi, who also attended a Jewish elementary school, my childhood was intrinsically connected with Judaism. However, after 6th grade, I left my insular Jewish community and moved to another city. Since then, I’ve been searching for my own Jewish community, one similar to that that I had left behind.

I had been blessed enough to attend a private Jewish day school. They provided an intimate space, with fewer than a dozen students per grade. Along with the incredible amount of one-on-one learning, student’s lives were centered around our Jewish identity. The bonds formed among our families added to this childhood spent engrossed in the Jewish way of life. My father still plays soccer with my elementary school classmates’ dads.

When I made the switch to a secular, private middle school, I lost most of those connections with other young Jews. My new city had a much smaller Jewish population, as did my mom’s new temple. All of these........

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