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The 1980's A time of materialism and consumerism

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The 1980's A time of materialism and consumerism

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The 1980's was a time where big hair was all the rage along with neon colors, and Blockbuster movies. MTV was born in 1981 the same years as me. "Yuppie" culture and conservative politics under Reagonomics was the norm and the Aids epidemic was on the rise and the Soviet Union was on the decline.

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Just a Jewish Girl Living In a Lonely World 

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Just a Jewish Girl Living In a Lonely World 

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I was born August 9, 1981 to Debbie and Barry Friedman and lived in West New York, New Jersey. This was the same town my mother grew up and we lived in the same two family home she grew up in. My grandparents lived in the upstairs apartment and we lived in the downstairs one.

The neighborhood had many Jewish families that lived there while my mother was growing up, however about the time I was born it began to change. There was a mass exodus of Cubans from Cuba that came to America and began settling in West New York. This made us one of the very few Jewish families still living there.

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I went Kindergarten at the same school my mom taught in

My sister and I were the only two Jewish students in the entire school.

During the holiday season I attended a show with the school and the Mayor asked if any one knew the song to get the Reindeer with a red nose to come out. I raised my hand wildly and he picked me. I got up and sang every word to the song with pride only to look around and see all my of my moms teacher friends laughing hysterically because the "only" Jewish kid in the whole room was picked to sing a Christmas song and knew every word. This was when I first realized I was different.

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October 1989 we moved out of West New York, NJ to Fair Lawn, NJ

I was in the third grade, and the first time ever I was going to school with other Jewish children.

I quickly realized although there were other Jewish children in my class I was still different, I was the only observant Jewish child. My family kept kosher and observed the Sabbath. I was excluded from many of the activities that my friends were doing because I couldn't drive on Friday night and Saturday.

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(President George H.W. Bush (Gulf War: 1990-1991)

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Saddam Hussein the ruler of Iraq invaded Kuwait and occupied the country. The invasion was due to the dispute between Kuwait and Iraq over Kuwait slant drilling in Iraq for oil.

President George H. W. Bus h deployed troops and equipment into Saudi Arabia and urged other countries to send their own forces.

Iraq fired missiles at Israel. Home to many of my aunts, uncles and cousins.

The mission that ended the war was called Operation Desert Storm

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On March 1, 1994 in an an anti-Semitic attack a van of 15 Orthodox Jewish students were shot killing one 16 year old boy and injuring three others. This was the first time I was actually afraid for my life as a Jewish person living in the United States.

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High School was a time when I began to question my "Jewishness."

I started to experiment with eating foods that weren't kosher and sleeping over friends houses on the weekends so that I could be with my friends over the Sabbath.

At the same time I became very active in a Jewish Youth Group and would spend weekends away at the retreats where I felt like I could just be myself and i was surrounded by other teenagers going through exactly what I was going through.

I felt guilty because I very much identified with my Jewish culture, rituals and traditions but also questioned so much.

I was almost not permitted to go on the Senior Class trip to Virginia Beach because the trip would be from Wednesday-Monday which meant it took place over the Sabbath. My parents had to fight the school so that they could come to the hotel on Friday to stay with me until Saturday night when the sabbath was over and I could rejoin my peers on the trip. The school finally agreed and I was able to go.

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On the morning of September 11, 2001 19 terrorists from al Qaeda hijacked four commercial aircraft.

Two planes crashed into the the World Trade Center in NYC. One into the North Tower the other into the South Tower.

Another plane crashed in the Pentagon.

The passengers on, Flight 93, the last hijacked plan fought back and the plane crashed in an empty filed in Pennsylvania.

Nearly 3,000 people were killed that day.

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(President Bill Clinton 1999-2001 President George W. Bush 2001-2005)

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Being a white Jewish women from an upper middle class family I as able to go to college with the help from my parents.

After attending Hofstra University I was able to use my privilege as white women who graduated college to get my first teaching job right out of college in 2003.

2003 was also the year I met my husband, got engaged and planned my wedding.

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Israel withdraws from the Gaza Strip and the land is under Palestinian Authority.

In June 2007 Hamas took over the Gaza Strip from the Palestinian Authority.

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(President Joe Biden 2023-Present)

As. the war in the Middle East is tragically happening anti-semitism is at an all time high in the Untied States and other countries around the world.

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(George W. Bush, Barack Obama, Donald Trump, Joe Biden 2005-Present)

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August 21, 2005 got married in a traditional Jewish Ceremony.

We made the decision to keep a traditional Jewish home and raise our children with out the rules of the orthodox household I grew up in, but rich in the culture and traditions of Judaism.