By Nava VanderWalde

This year I started 9th grade at Houston High School, a public high school in Germantown. This has been a big change, as I went from Bornblum, a private school with a graduating class of 8, to a public school with over 2,000 kids. For one thing, the hallways are like Times Square on New Year's Eve. It’s so crowded that sometimes I get run over, or lost in the hallways. There have been times when I’ve gone into random staircases trying to get to a class, and had no idea where I was. Another difference from Bornblum is that now, each of my teachers teach the same subject, for six periods, to over 200 students. I’ve had to learn to advocate for myself and make myself known, because otherwise I would just be a name and a grade. This was helpful in September, when I had to miss a lot of school for Jewish holidays. Speaking of, another major difference between Bornblum and Houston is that Bornblum is Jewish. In middle school everyone around me was Jewish, and our curriculum was built around Jewish holidays and classes. As an orthodox Jew in a public high school, there have been many experiences where I’ve had to get creative in order to keep my religion. 

One of the social norms at Houston is going to football games. Honestly, the school invests way too much on football. For example, instead of paying for better vents that don’t collapse on you when it rains (which actually happened), they buy fire shooters to hype up the crowd at football games. I will say though, it’s very fun to root for your own school team, especially when they won the state championship last year. This month, I went to the rivalry game against the Collierville Dragons (BOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!). I stayed at my friend's grandparent’s house in order to walk to the game on a Friday night. I also made sure to have a friend with me at all times because I didn’t have my phone. The game was insane, with our Houston Mustangs having a comeback at the end and winning 17-13. It was amazing! 

After the game, my friend and I walked back to her grandparent’s house. We walked with many other people who were also trying to get home. A downside of having to stay at a friend’s for the weekend is that I miss spending Shabbat with my family. It’s definitely strange when you feel like two weeks is only one because you didn’t get to have a Shabbat in your community. 

Another experience I had as a Jew in a public high school was when I had to miss a lot of school due to the fall holidays. When telling my teachers I was missing a Thursday and Friday, I was worried they would be upset or lower my grade for being absent. Instead, many of them actually wanted to learn more about the holidays I was celebrating! It was sometimes hard to have these conversations. Some teachers asked why other Jewish students weren’t also missing for those days. I had to explain to them that because I am an observant Jew, I was not able to come and work on these days. All of them were very nice about it, and even gave me more time than required to complete all of my missing work. Eventually it got to a point that when I had to miss more school for other reasons, the teachers would automatically respond assuming it was for another holiday. 

One of my more serious interactions as a Jew at a public school was on October 7th. I had decided, along with many other Jews at the school, to wear the yellow ribbon and hostage tag. When walking to the bathroom, I encountered a Muslim wearing a bright red Hijab and a free Palestine sweatshirt, as well as the “flag” on her backpack. She approached me and said, “Free Palestine”. I responded, “From Hamas”, and walked away. This kind of shook me because I had yet to meet someone who was unsupportive or judgemental of my religion. Even the Palestinian-American, who I sit next to in one of my classes, has been insanely kind and has even said she doesn’t believe in Hamas.

The Israel-Palestinian conflict has definitely been a topic of discussion at school, especially in the dressing room. This month, I participated in the school’s production of Alice and Wonderland. In the dressing room, some of the people like to talk about politics. The second night of our show, the topic of conversation was the Israel-Palestine conflict. It started with people saying that they didn’t agree with what Hamas is doing and terrorism is horrible. Somehow it was moved to “We don’t like what Israel’s doing either,” and, “Colonizing isn’t okay.” I then went on to explain that the land belonged to the Jews way before it was called Palestine, so it technically isn’t colonizing. People then argued that killing innocent people isn’t okay and I responded by saying, “If terrorists came to the US and killed a higher percentage of the population than in 9/11, you would expect the US to go into war.” This got them quiet and I went to the director and reported the incident. She announced that from then on politics, racism, homophobia, and just being mean was banned from the dressing room. Violation of the prohibition would lead to a ban from auditioning for all future productions. 

Although I now have to leave my house 40 minutes earlier than I did last year, I am so grateful for the positive atmosphere that Houston has provided for me. The administration and staff are supportive of me being openly Jewish in their school, and I am very lucky for the Jewish village at Houston that always looks out for me. One of my teachers even commented on the fact that freshmen, like myself, don’t normally talk to Juniors at school. We Jews are an exception! By the way, I got a free playa bowl for writing this article. (Thanks Ethan!)