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Jewish in Peace Corps

Hi all, hope you had a wonderful shabbat! I’m writing with a bit of a complicated situation (which I really should have planned for earlier). I’m a peace corps volunteer in a religiously tolerant but very non Jewish (primarily muslim) country. I’m a semi-practicing Jew, as in I don’t really keep kosher except on holidays and I don’t pray every day and sometimes forget a shabbat, but I try to light candles at least on shabbat and go to shul for the holidays. I kind of assumed there’d be at least one other semi practicing Jew in the Peace Corps who’d maybe be in country for a bit, but alas. There are several culturally Jewish volunteers, which is great, but they’ve been unable to help me figure out workarounds for practice. I’ve only recently moved to my site in the country. With hannukah approaching fast, I’ve realized that all I’ve got are two plastic candles I’ve been using for shabbat and nothing else. My stove isn’t even set up yet. And even for shabbat, it’s been hard for it to feel special when no one else cares or even knows that I care. I’m not sure what to do, and I’m also worried for coming holidays like passover and purim. I’ve been thinking about telling my host family I’m Jewish, but I’ve been warned away from that until I have more vocabulary in the local language. So I’m feeling a bit lonely and disconnected from Judaism, as well as facing a lot of logistical hurdels in practice. If anyone has advice or tips for this sort of situation, I’d love to hear it! Also advice on short notice diy-ing a menorah.

submitted by /u/JadedFlan
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Source: Reditt