When I started attending a Sephardic/Mizrahi shul in Los Angeles and I mentioned to friends that a lot of the congregants were from as far as England, India, Iran, Burma, Iraq, Morocco, Pakistan, Iran, Argentina, the Dominican Republic (a visiting rabbi) and many more places around the globe, people (mostly Jewish) kept asking me if the congregants were REALLY Jewish.

Well! Wish I’d had this video on hand.

I still can’t believe I mentioned England and someone still asked “Do these congregants understand English?” I responded: “Yes, better than you.” Yes, yes, I really did say that, wha-what?

My favorite question while visiting this shul was from a non-observant Ashkenazi visitor who asked (after I told her my husband was an Orthodox rabbi), “Are you Jewish? Really?” and then squinting at me and looking me up and down several times “to validate”: “Do you know any Hebrew?” I asked her the same. She said “No” and I said “Yes, I do know some Hebrew and some Spanish and some English.” Oh, alright, I just said “Yes, I do.”