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As an Asian American Jew, I never felt like I belonged. Then I fasted for Yom Kippur in China

JL;DR SUMMARY Daniel Tam-Claiborne reflects on his journey of cultural identity as a multiracial Asian American Jew. A way out west there was a fella, fella I want to tell you about, fella by the name of Jeff Lebowski. At least, that was the handle his lovin' parents gave him, but he never had much use for it himself. This Lebowski, he called himself the Dude. Now, Dude, that's a name no one would self-apply where I come from. But then, there was a lot about the Dude that didn't make a whole lot of sense to me. And a lot about where he lived, likewise. But then again, maybe that's why I found the place s'durned innarestin'.

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Tags

Yom KippurJewish CustomsCultural IdentityFastingCultural IntegrationSelf DiscoveryIdentity ExplorationAsian American JewsMultiracial IdentityChinese Heritage

Places mentioned

Beijing, China
"Dishes of steamed buns, stew and other items are seen on the table at local restaurant Yaoji Chao Gan in Beijing, China, Nov. 9, 2020."
Taigu, Shanxi, China
"but in the small rural Chinese town of Taigu, 400 miles west of Beijing."
New York, United States
"My childhood in New York was marked with traces of that lineage: lighting firecrackers outside my third-floor fire escape every Lunar New Year,"

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This item was indexed and curated by Cairo, JL;DR's web crawler.
Cairo Item ID 62838
Cairo Source ID 35
Retrieved 2025-10-01 05:30:56 UTC
Curated 2025-10-01 08:32:26 UTC