Bronfman Application Essays
published upon acceptance into the Fellowship!
Describe your relationship to being Jewish.
I'm Jewish spiritually and culturally, but not in ways one might expect.
I wear a khamsa, and whenever I put it on or remove it I recite a short prayer I wrote in Hebrew. I bless the bread and wine at dinner under my breath. In the shower I sing the Sh'ma, and before going to bed I put on my tallit and kippah, face Jerusalem and chant the Amidah – and sometimes other prayers too. Maybe this isn't how religious Judaism is 'supposed to be' practiced, but this way I can continue indefinitely while feeling more connected spiritually than I ever have before. My spirituality is peaceful, quiet, and personal.
I learn about Jewish history, read Jewish folktales and eat Jewish foods. I text with my Israeli penpal about the differences between being Jewish in America versus in Israel. I listen to music in Hebrew and feel so at home, so connected, so right. I laugh with my family about how Yoda is Jewish (יודע) and try to chant Chad Gadya faster than my little cousins, breath held in.
I learn Hebrew. Learning languages gives you access to new perspectives and cultures – you can talk to people heart-to-heart rather than head-to-head. But learning Hebrew is different from learning other languages, because I'm not just connecting with any people; I'm connecting with my people, my culture, my heritage, and that's what makes it feel so special, so different. In some way I'm digging deeper into myself. My mother tells me how her grandma always used to say she had a ponim yafa. She never knew what it meant. But learning Hebrew, I know it means "beautiful face" (from פנים יפה). And now she knows too. It's such a freeing feeling to blow off the dust.
Elaborate on one of the 5 activities above and why it is important to you.
It sounds really nerdy, and I don't consider myself a nerd, so I'm always embarrassed telling people, but… I'm a conlanger – I make up languages. I love conlanging because I can dive deep into another world and speculate what could be, while also learning more about my own world in the process. How could this language evolve? How would speakers express causality and time? How many distinct color words might they have? I've learned a lot of linguistics through conlanging, and it's (somewhat surprisingly?) made me friends from all over the world.
Last March I helped start LingLeague, an international organization for high-school students interested in linguistics. Me and the other heads come from all over the world, and we bonded through Covid planning the organization's events. And I'm excited to meet some in person soon at the annual LSA meeting where LingLeague will be hosting student events! Through internet advertising (my reddit posts snagged hundreds of participants!) I know high-schoolers on every continent. I've met personal heroes, introduced them as speakers, and gotten their advice about conlanging in the professional world. And I've gotten thousands of views on my conlanging youtube channel Shmili Langs!
List three works that you’ve encountered in the last 3 years and have made an impact on you. At least one should be a book. For each piece chosen, please describe how/why it has impacted you. In the past, applicants have chosen books, films, music, podcasts, poems, visual art, special sites, and more.
Avatar: The Last Airbender helped me through Covid. Its humor lifted my spirits when remote school weighed me down, and its incredible depth and emotional maturity kept me interested and amazed. I've watched it five times through now, and my stuffed animal flying bison Floof has been with me for over a year. I'm also wearing an Appa sweatshirt while writing this (so comfy)!
I've read many books about Israel-Palestine (by both Israelis and Palestinians), but my favorite so far is Letters to my Palestinian Neighbor, and I recommend it to anyone wanting to learn more. I like it not because it explains the facts of the conflict but because it explains the emotions. The actual feelings of someone living there – their hopes, dreams, fears. I don't agree with all the political statements made in the book and it's still my favorite – and that is impressive.
The Far Field by Madhuri Vijay is about Kashmir, not Israel-Palestine, and is a fiction, but it has similar themes. It too does an incredible job of conveying the feelings, the hopes and dreams of people on all sides of a seemingly unretractable conflict. It has a surprise moral twist which strikes deep, about how foreigners think they understand but do not. Which scares me, because I want to understand. But it only pushes me harder to try. The book also contains elements of magical realism, my favorite genre – I love how the mystical world intertwines so seamlessly with our own.
Please tell us a story about yourself that gives us insight into how you think and who you are, which might otherwise not be apparent in your application.
Journal Entry 9/28/21:
…got to rehearsal and it was drizzling. The director gave us 15 minutes to rest before starting. Everyone else passed out immediately but I love the rain so I asked to go outside. I lay down, back to the wet and dirty stone, putting my sweatshirt under my butt so it wouldn't get soaked (didn't work). My arms spread, forming a snow angel. The rain loudened and intensified as I lay there. I set a timer on my phone so I wouldn't feel the urge to look at it. The rain soaked me; I embraced the rain. After a few minutes my old graphic design teacher walked over and asked, "Are you ok?" I didn't hear her at first; my eyes were closed and my ears filled with droplets. I assured her I was just having fun and 'embracing the rain'. Still a little confused, she went inside and stowed away her umbrella. Another teacher came later, with a rainjacket – I threw a big double thumbs up from the ground. I was drenched completely by then, but it was fine; I like being wet. My friends think it's weird and it is. But it refreshes me. Relaxes me and simultaneously wakes me up, which sounds like a contradiction but somehow isn't – it's like sleeping and not feeling drowsy afterwards. The water gives me energy. I love loving something random, because then I can be happy and energized randomly. Most people fear the rain, see it as a bad thing. And there are two ways to deal with bad things – escape them or make them good. I trained myself to love this bad thing, to be happy despite and then because of it. I don't like escapism – I would rather dance in the rain.