A Young Dancer From Atlanta Embraces His Jewish Pride at Auschwitz
by Mendel Super – chabad.org
“Am I a dancer who is Jewish or a Jew who dances?”
The question played on 16-year-old Yakov Vinnik’s conscience. The child of Jews from the former Soviet Union, Vinnik grew up watching his mother, Maria, light the Shabbat candles, while his dad, Boris, spoke fluent Hebrew. “We were not very religious. I wore a Magen David but no kippah,” Vinnik told Chabad.org.
When Vinnik, an Atlanta native, discovered a local CTeen chapter at Chabad-Lubavitch of North Fulton, he found himself deeply connecting to Judaism. A student at North Atlanta High School where he is active in the study and performance of dance in many forms, the contrast between other youth programs and the CTeen chapter struck him. Rather than trying to be “hip,” he says that CTeeners focus on being a good, moral people and contributing to society. “The rabbis teach us Torah and they convey it joyfully. A good rabbi is always interesting to listen to. There’s a sense of safety; you can always ask questions.”
Through his local CTeen chapter, Vinnik was introduced to a whole new Jewish experience. “I went on the New York trip and spent a Shabbat in 770,” as part of an international Shabbaton in the Crown Heights section of Brooklyn, N.Y. Meeting thousands of Jewish teens made him want more. When he heard about CTeen’s Heritage Quest summer trip, in which 30 teens tour Jewish sites in Israel and Poland, he asked his parents if he could join.
“Going to Auschwitz was an affirmation of sorts,” he says. “It gave me a sense of confirmation that we have a long history—and not all of it is pretty.”
His Poland experience helped him be “much more confident and more open” about his Jewish identity.
An experience that he had while touring an archaeological site in Poland left him a changed person.
In the Warsaw Ghetto, the group gathered at the former home of Mordechai Anielewicz, leader of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising. While learning about the horrors of the ghetto and the tragic heroism of Anielewicz, and his group of activist men and women, Vinnik overheard one of the archaeologists at the site speaking with a familiar accent. Striking up a conversation in Russian, the teen learned that the fellow was Jewish. “I am not sure what took me over at that moment, but for the first time in my life, I asked a complete stranger if he would join me in putting on tefillin.” The archeologist agreed, and with the help of the rabbis accompanying them, Vinnik helped him wrap the timeless cords of tradition on his arms and head.
“I felt a need to respect those who lived, studied and were killed on this very site,” he describes emotionally. “What better way than to carry on the traditions that so many gave their lives to preserve in this very place.”
A week later, while touring Israel, Vinnik and his fellow CTeeners received news from Warsaw. The archeological dig they’d witnessed had uncovered Anielewicz’s “spiritual ammunition”: two small black boxes with fraying straps—just like those he’d helped the archeologist wrap a week earlier.
Now back at home in Atlanta, Vinnik is still in touch with his new group of friends from all over the county. He even plans on creating a podcast with one of them about Jewish teens’ thoughts on life. Vinnik now goes by his Jewish name, Yakov, at school and everywhere else. “My Jewish name is how G‑d hears me. I was created in His image, and my Jewish name is my name.”
And he’s finally answered his question: “I am a Jew who dances.”
This article was reprinted with permission from chabad.org
