Your Description Essay Example for Free

Your Description EssayA. BackgroundVery briefly describe yourself (age, birthplace, social partition and status when you were begining up, current cultural orientation, etc.). I was natural in San Francisco in 1985 to two young Israeli immigrants. I am the oldest of three and the only daughter. My family was Jewish but actually secular, and our stance on religion and politics was liberal. I grew up in a middle to upper middle class suburb in the Bay Area where most of my champs were Catholic or Protestant. My current ideals have not strayed very much from my liberal upbringing, and I think that I lived somewhat of a sheltered, privileged life. However, the only involvement that I may have lacked was growing up with an extended family nearby.B. Background of Parents/Grandparents/Great Grandparents Describe what you know about your become, redeem, maternal and paternal grandparents and great grandparents and so on. How did your ancestors enter the United States (e.g., w ere they voluntary immigrants, involuntary through conquest, time of entry, etc.)? My set out grew up in a middle class neighborhood in Jerusalem, and my tiro was from a poorer family in the suburb of Haifa. They met during my mothers army service, and, after she was released, they traveled around Europe for a few years. They began to feel cramped by Israels small borders and grew weary of the constant conflict that seemed to dominate its society. My mother inherited her US citizenship from my grandparents and had some family that still lived in California, so my mother and father immigrated to San Francisco in the late 70s. My mother attended a masters program at SF State, and my father worked as a maintenance organise in one of the high-rises in the metropolis. When my mother graduated from her program, they moved from a poor, pre controllingly black, neighborhood in the city to Walnut Creek to raise my brothers and me.My mothers father was originally from Germ some(prenominal) and escaped persecution during WWII by coming to the states with his family. In Germany, his household employed servants that took care of all the domestic work so that his mother never had to work. Her life consisted of having coffee with her friends in the morning and entertaining rich friends and businessmen at dinner parties. When Hitler came to power in Germany, they lost all their assets and immigrated pinched to the US. They settled in Chicago wherethey had relatives, and for the first time in her life, his mother had to work. She had no formal education or professional skills but was happy to get a job in the garment industry as a seamstress. His dad got a job as a door-to-door salesman, and my grandfather, who was a stripling at the time, had to work in odd jobs to help the family. My aunt Ruth was too young to work at the time, so she went to the middle school in the area.My grandmother, the younger of the two sisters, lived in a very poor neighborhood in the Bronx duri ng the depression. Her father worked as a garbage collector for the city, and her mother was a housewife. From what I recall, my grandmothers parents moved to the states as immigrants from Poland and Russia during the pogroms after WWI. My grandparents were a part of a Zionist youth movement and met in Israel on a Kibbutz that they helped build. They were one of the first generations to move to Israel in 1948. They briefly raised their children under the socialist Ideals of Kibbutz Sasa before moving to Jerusalem, and my grandfather became the regional manager of a very successful jewelry company. I know far less history in regard to my fathers side of the family. From the information made acquir equal to me, his parents were Romanian and immigrated to Israel with very little family. They settled in Haifa where my grandfather worked in construction.My father suffered a large amount of physical abuse at the transfer of my grandfather and ran away from home when he was 14. He stayed with his mothers sister on a kibbutz in the north. When my father immigrated to the US, his parents stayed in Israel. C. Experiences with Anglo Conformity and Factors touching Inclusion By the standards of Anglo Conformity, were your relatives included or excluded in American society? How did they avoid/attempt/achieve assimilation and integration? What role did social class and social power play in their experiences? Even though my mothers parents came from somewhat different backgrounds, both my grandparents grew up living in a city amongst those of a similar background or class.My grandmothers neighborhood was comprised of mostly Jews and African Americans, and, while she was somewhat fearful of the black great deal there because, as she said, they might mug you, she felt safe and hireed by her surrounding community. During WWII, her grandparents were still in Europe, and she remembers her childhood being more force by the war overseas than any discrimination in America th at may have been in place.However, she was aware that in other more white Anglo-Saxon Protestant neighborhoods outside of the city she lived, Jewish people were excluded. During the depression, there was major competition for jobs, and Jewish people were scape-goated. Also at that time, schools in other areas than where she lived would only accept a finite number of Jewish children. My mothers father also lived in a tight-knit Jewish community in the city and did not mix with the rest of the community at first.However, as he learn English and began to go to school and work, he began to feel more integrated. unconnected my grandfather and her parents, my grandmother was born in the US and did not have a language barrier to overcome. Like most second generation immigrants, she was able to assimilate with the general public, and, because she already looked European, it was easier to blend in with many other communities. However, there was some judgment from her own community when sh e befriended children of different backgrounds, and she often hear statements such as, Dont be friendly with the goyium God forbid you marry one of them, she was six at the time. My mother considers herself an Israeli American. Since she did not grow up here, she lacks the cultural experiences that others who did grow up in America may have.She speaks Hebrew with her Israeli friends, but also has a lot of American friends. Her English has always been good, and she never had much of an accent. She continues to relate to Israeli folk songs and dances and Jewish holi years and traditions although she does not practice religion seriously. She identifies as Caucasian with middle class set of culture, education, social equality and justice. All things being equal, I think my mother assimilated into the dominant society pretty well. My father had a harder time coming into the states and take in from the beginning. He had a thicker accent than my mother and did not have much of an educati onal background. He also suffered more anti-Semitism at his blue prehend job, at which he interacted primarily with less educated, lower middle class people. To this day, his friends and the people he surrounds himself with are primarily Israeli, Jewish, family, or people he knew from his days in Israel.D. ConclusionWhat conclusions do you draw about your own status of assimilation based on your ethnic roots, socialization, and personal experiences? There was always a very long plane ride that separated me from most of my extended family. Asa consequence of being so disconnected with my roots and removed(p) from relatives, I feel that I may have lost a lot of what makes me Jewish, and, during my years of assimilation and blending with the dominant Protestant culture of my neighborhood, I have become very Americanized. My mother and father would continue to speak Hebrew in the household, however, while my parents tried to teach me, I never learned how to speak it myself. We did not go to synagogue, so, while we continued to celebrate high holidays (the important Jewish holidays), the tradition of what they meant to the Jewish religion was lost on us. These holidays were preferably mainly a way for family and/or friends to get together once in a while.My slight ambivalence or naivety regarding the effects of any cultural differences between my cultural upbringing and that of the dominant culture are most likely due to the fact that these particular differences were more subtle than the stark cultural differences of other cultures. Being an Ashkenazi Jew, I did not bare any physical markings of any particular minority, and I could blend in with the rest of the dominant white culture of my neighborhood. As I grew up and made friends in school, I began to notice that most did not have menorahs in their houses or barmitzva parties, and tralatitious holidays were not celebrated the same. While I acknowledged that these things were different, I do not think I was ashamed of them perhaps because, while they were not respectable by the majority of the people I associated with, being Jewish was mostly accepted by the majority of people. However, my experience may have been different if my contend was darker or if I had practiced my religion more seriously.However, for the most part, religion or background did not warrant discussion unless it was purposefully brought up or mentioned. On the other hand, while being Jewish may not have been shameful for me, it remained something that set me apart from others, and it was something I had to explain when a friend asked why I did not have a Christmas tree or about my fathers heavy accent. However, unlike my grandparents and great grandparents who had their Jewish communities, I also did not have a community nearby where I felt the same. My family was secular and non-religious, so we did not have any connections through the synagogue, and our extended family was in Israel. In consequence, I always f elt a little left out, or like I did not belong exactly to any one place.