A Berkeley teen who plans to convert to Judaism as soon as he turns 18 has been chosen for the prestigious Bronfman Youth Fellowship this year, as has another teenager from Petaluma.
Mateo Aceves and Benamy Yashar are the two fellowship winners.
Aceves just finished his junior year at Berkeley High. He was bar mitzvahed at Kehilla Community Synagogue, and is still active at the Renewal synagogue in Piedmont, working as a teacher’s assistant at the Hebrew school and leading teen services on retreats and during the High Holy Days. He is also in Berkeley’s Midrasha.
As his interest and observance in Judaism has intensified, he has begun attending Berkeley’s Congregation Beth Israel. At the Orthodox shul, he always makes sure more than nine men are present, because he can’t be counted in a minyan.
Aceves was the subject of a cover story in the then-Jewish Bulletin in 2001 called “‘Why aren’t we Jewish?’ Berkeley boy asks mom — and pursues answer.”
While his non-Jewish mother had a Jewish partner when he was young, and Aceves’ sperm donor is Jewish, he was not raised Jewish. Yet at a remarkably young age — 5, his mother says — he asked her why they weren’t Jewish. His mother finally joined Kehilla so he could attend Hebrew school.
All that stands in the way of his being Jewish is a brit milah, which Aceves says he will have next summer, as soon as he turns 18.
Aceves was told about the Bronfman fellowship by a teacher at Kehilla. And while he considers himself very pro-Israel, he has not yet had an opportunity to go there.
“I wanted a free trip to Israel, and if I didn’t get this, I would have gone on Birthright Israel next year,” he said. “I knew a lot of people who have gone on the Bronfman trip, so I didn’t realize how prestigious it was.”
Begun in 1987, the Bronfman Youth Fellowship program selects its 26 recipients from among the brightest Jewish high school students, for five weeks of intensive studying and touring in Israel.
With hundreds of applicants the program is highly competitive. The teens come from all streams of Judaism. They are taught by professors and rabbis, and struggle with the essential questions of Jewish identity. They are chosen not only for their diverse Jewish backgrounds, but also for their leadership potential and character.
While Aceves had to write an essay, he felt he couldn’t properly address his Jewish journey in the word-count he was allotted. It was during the interview in Los Angeles that he spoke about his background.
One of the rabbis looked at Aceves matter-of-factly and said, “So wait … you know you’re not Jewish.”
Aceves said that he knew that.
The rabbi relayed that a former participant learned he was not Jewish while a Bronfman fellow, and found it very disconcerting, to say the least. Or as Aceves put it, “he kind of whacked out.”
The rabbi wanted assurance that Aceves wouldn’t do the same. He replied he wouldn’t.
Benamy Yashar of Petaluma just finished his junior year at Petaluma High School. His father is of Israeli-Syrian descent, and his mother is of Danish and Polish descent. He teaches at the religious school at Congregation B’nai Israel in Petaluma, which is Conservative.
He has been to Israel, spending last summer at the Technion University with an international group of high school students working on an aerospace engineering project.
Yashar could not be reached by press time.
Incidentally, both Yashar and Aceves are top students and play in their school’s jazz bands.