I am an Ashkenazi Jew and yet I have always strugggled and never found a Jewish synagogue home. I just don't fit the mold and am an introvert so going up to strangers is most difficult for me. Even touching religious school - I was like my students with special needs -- never quite fitting in. And being with my husband, who uses a wheelchair, complicates the situation. We were once in a shul and the only conversation we had with someone was could you move your wheelchair (hes sitting in it) out of the aisle so I can get passed... we have tried but if we leave having talked to no one, that is not where we belong. And so we are isolated in a very large Jewish community.
I am an Ashkenazi Jew and yet I have always strugggled and never found a Jewish synagogue home. I just don't fit the mold and am an introvert so going up to strangers is most difficult for me. Even touching religious school - I was like my students with special needs -- never quite fitting in. And being with my husband, who uses a wheelchair, complicates the situation. We were once in a shul and the only conversation we had with someone was could you move your wheelchair (hes sitting in it) out of the aisle so I can get passed... we have tried but if we leave having talked to no one, that is not where we belong. And so we are isolated in a very large Jewish community.