I don't know where to begin so I'll just be honest.
I am not Jewsish, I am Australian
I grew up surrounded by people who had nothing good to say about Israel or Jewish people.
I never questioned it until I met someone Israeli online who treated me with more respect and taught me more than anyone else in my life ever had. He didn't have to. He just did.
That made me look closer. I started learning Hebrew on my own. I listened to the music. I read about the history. The more I looked, the more I found something I recognised — a people that documents the wrong alongside the right, that builds strength from pain, that takes craft and knowledge seriously.
I've been defending them behind their back ever since with nothing to gain from it.
I'm an ex-Muslim. My father is sick and living with me. I'm struggling to find work. I'm not coming here looking for easy answers. I'm coming here because something in this culture feels true to me in a way nothing else has.
What should I read first? And is it strange for someone like me to walk into a synagogue in Sydney with nothing but questions?