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Turns out I’m Jewish- How do I get started?

My story is the result of Anti-Semitism, so if this is upsetting to you please do not read, and have a nice day!

So, this is a weird situation. My mom called me over today and dropped quite the bombshell on me. My family used to live in France and were proud and devout Jewish, owned land and farms, had tons of children, the whole nine yards. Apparently sometime before WWII went off the deep end they were kicked off their land, had their houses and belongings burned, forced to convert to Catholicism, and were shipped off to Canada. Except they didn’t really do that and still practiced secretly while most of them passed on the ship there. Then they moved to New Orleans, kept up the Catholic act, eventually had my grandma, mom, and then me.

My mom tells me all of this, shows me my history and some stuff they were able to keep, I say thanks for the info, and leave. I’m kinda pissed, not at my mom, but at the way my family was treated, and want to make things right. I grew up in a 99% Jewish community (went to Passover at friend’s houses every year, bar mitzvahs, bat mitzvahs, we had Hanukkah floats instead of Christmas floats, etc.) so I’m not totally lost, but I’m wondering where I can begin learning about my community properly? I’m a woman, so I’ll pass this on to my kids and don’t want them to be lost in their identities like I was. I want them to be proud of who they are, and the idea that this entire massive part of my history could have been so forcefully erased makes me sick.

Any advice on how to navigate this as well as general things I should know would be insanely helpful, but I want to get this as right as I can. Thank you!

submitted by /u/blueberrytortilla
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Source: Reditt