Jewish Geography
As a freshman coming to Cornell, there are thousands of new faces. When meeting all of these new people, the conversations generally follow the same pattern of questions – what’s your name, what’s your major, and where are you from? Because this is Cornell, more times than not, the answer to that last question will be either Long Island or Wescheter. In my personal experience, being from Long Island, the path of the conversation with this stranger then becomes, “Oh, I know people who live in your town! Do you know _____, ______, or _____?” Welcome to the game of “Jewish Geography”, where everyone knows everyone.
Jewish Geography is when two strangers list everyone they know from each other’s towns and see what friends they have in common. It is called “Jewish Geography” because most of the time, the players went to predominantly Jewish sleep-away camps, so they’ll have camp friends that live in Weschester or on Long Island, in the same town or a town close to this new person that they have just met. It might be their camp friend’s school friend that they know, or their school friend’s camp friend, or their camp friend’s cousin or family friend or some other type of friend. You do not have to be Jewish to play the game, nor do you have to have attended sleep-away camp or live strictly on Long Island or in Weschester. It just so happens that this is the norm and the most common ways people are connected. The game of Jewish Geography is really just people discovering a social network.
The main nodes in this Jewish Geography social network would be the two people playing the game, as well as the friends they have in their own town and in the other towns being discussed. Edges connect the players to the people that they know, and as the game progresses, the players find new edges that they did not know existed before. They find out that the friend that they have from their hometown has edges to this other player. The different components of the network will usually be clusters defined by hometown. Components of the network of people from different towns have bridges, because this person knows that person from sleepaway camp, or from Hebrew School, or they have some other Jewish connection to each other.
The article from the internet explains literal Jewish geography – the way Jews in America have settled clustered in cities the way they have, and why. Jewish people in America live in clusters mainly along the coasts and in some large cities spread throughout the country, so because of this it is not surprising that one person knows one other person from the cluster in a different town. These clusters exist because the culture cannot exist without a large number of people to support it – there needs to be a significant number of people to support schools, synagogues and kosher food establishments. The trend in America is that people tend to be judgmental; therefore it has only been possible for Jewish people to be accepted in cities – where there are a large number of Jews to support each other and more liberal people that want to allow for religious freedom. Literal Jewish geography is the reason the game of Jewish Geography is possible.
There are social ties everywhere. Humans are social beings, and when people find something in common, such as their religion, they tend to bond and social ties get stronger. Jewish Geography points at the connections people have with each other, and it helps them discover the social network that exists due to their common practices.
Source: http://www.jewishideasdaily.com/5378/features/the-real-jewish-geography/