From our ShinShinit Ella Payorski!

Hello everyone and Shabbat Shalom.

My name is Ella Payorski, and I’m the new UJA ShinShinit at Holy Blossom Temple this year. I’m so excited for the upcoming year and to be a part of the Jewish community here. My journey here in Toronto started officially one month ago, but in fact, I started preparing for it a long time ago and I even might say my whole life.

I was born on October 23rd, 2004 in Palo Alto, California. I’m the oldest child in my family, my younger sister Aviv was also born there in 2006. My parents both had jobs in Silicon Valley.

I wasn’t even three years old when my mother found out she was pregnant with my youngest brother, Ben. At that time, my parents decided to move back to Israel, where both of my parents grew up. They wanted my siblings and me to grow up next to our family, grandparents, and cousins, who all lived in Israel, and that is exactly what happened.

In Israel, we settled in a Moshav called Kfar Monash. This is the village my father grew up in, and where most of his family lives today. I mean, my neighbours are my cousins, and their neighbours are my cousins too. The community in the Moshav is very small, with less than 1,000 residents, and everyone knows each other. I can tell this because the most common question I get just by walking in the streets is “Are you Avi and Dita’s granddaughter?”.

It is such a warm and nice feeling to grow up in a place having a sense of community and belonging to something bigger than yourself. Producing events in the Moshav and volunteering in the youth movement “Ha’tuna Ha’hadasha” are activities that were very important to me. I was able to influence other people, share my fields of interest such as dancing, music, photography, and baking and connect the community together with my love for the state of Israel. It is known that when two Israelis are meeting for the first time, they can always find a shared friend, and that makes me feel that Israel is one big community.

In my perspective, Israel, Judaism, and family all revolve around the idea that our belonging is all about the people and the community that surrounds us, and that they are all connected in many different ways.

After one month here in Toronto, I have just started to realize that my perspective about community is still very narrow. The Jewish community in Israel and the one here in Toronto are parts of a very large united Jewish community around the world. I am excited to share my experience living in Israel with the people here, and have the same intimacy and belonging feeling with the community of Holy Blossom.

I would like to thank you all for the warm welcome and for the opportunity to take part and contribute to the Holy Blossom community.

I’m wishing you all Shana Tova and Shabbat Shalom,

Ella

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