HUFFINGTON
08.05.12
SHALOM Y’ALL
tive traditions. Her own spiritual
observance is varied. She attends
synagogue once or twice a month
and hosts shabbat dinners on
Fridays. She also enjoys the occasional barbecue pork rib.
She’s armed with the email addresses of hundreds of young Jews
who have left Birmingham — procured from their parents — a stack
of resumes and an inbox with descriptions of job openings. Her goal:
to get one child from every Jewish
Birmingham family to settle in the
city and to convince those who
happen to pass through that it’s a
worthwhile place to be Jewish.
That can be difficult.
MAKING THE PITCH
Pataky, the student who arrived in
Birmingham in the spring for an
internship as a physical therapist,
knows the hurdles.
“When I moved here, it was
Passover. And when I said to
people around town that I was
observing Passover, nobody knew
what it was,” she recalls. “I never
had to explain it before.”
Jefferson County, where Birmingham is located, is commonly
ranked as one of the most Christian places in the nation — there
are 67 churches for every syna-
“When I moved here, it was
Passover. And when I said to people
around town that I was observing
Passover, nobody knew what it was.
I never had to explain that before.”
gogue. But despite the community
being overwhelmingly Christian,
its people by and large embrace
diversity. There are two Hindu
temples, two Buddhist temples,
a Sikh gurdwara and several
mosques. Birmingham is also
home to a small community of
Russians and popular Greek and
Lebanese restaurants.
No matter for Pataky. A selfdescribed “atheist cultural Jew”
who observes the occasional Jewish
holiday, she has a month to go in
the city. It’s not a bad place, she insists. She’s not accustomed to being
around so many evangelical Christians, but everyone has respected
her beliefs. She’s grown attached to
the craft brewery not far from her
suburban apartment. She loves the
job and has been less bored since
making friends through Seligman’s
introductions over sangria.
But when her internship is done,
she hopes to move to New York,