Amy Ellenbogen

Description

Amy Ellenbogen was born in White Plains, New York. Growing up as a Jewish kid, she was tracked on the low-achieving track in school and learned to be a young activist organizing around school issues such as tracking and cultural diversity education. She talks about her exposure to anti-racism education, especially via her mentor’s relationship to the academic Peggy McIntosh. She discusses the complexities of Jewish identity as a young person—being teased for being Jewish, not ascribing to Jewish religion, and having to explain the differences between religious and secular Jews to her peers. Her parents introduced her to Jewish religious traditions (though they were Atheist) because of her complaints over not being able to celebrate Christmas. She explains being familiar with the Jewish and specifically Lubavitch –Chabad (Hassidic) community in Crown Heights as a young person, as some Jews take trips to Crown Heights around the time of Bar and Bat Mitzvahs. During her visits she spent the weekend with a Chabad family. Additionally, growing up, her parents were close friends with a couple whose husband was formerly a member of the Lubavitch community. She speaks about having complicated feelings about the Lubavitch community because she has high respect for their resistance to assimilation, but on the other hand she resists the categorization of Hassidics s “real” Jews. She has often felt rejected from Jewish identity as a result of this categorization. She started Columbia University as a Freshman at around the time of the Crown Heights Riots. She...

From Collection

2016 Weeksville Heritage Center Oral History Series