Central to tikkun olam is hearing the call of the voiceless and fighting for justice in every available avenue.
I realized that I had been Jewish all along I simply hadn’t known it. When I discovered Judaism, I finally felt complete. For many years of my life, I operated by a set of clear and abiding principles, and asked inconvenient, challenging questions, but I had no formal spiritual framework. It was then that I realized that what I had long thought of as singularly mine was no longer my secret to keep.įor me, being Jewish cannot be separated from tikkun olam, the concept that calls upon us to repair the world. citizen, that I discovered that I had a newfound power and thus responsibility to share my story, that at that juncture of my life, I was making an actual decision to stay quiet - a privilege that millions of undocumented immigrants do not have. It wasn’t until the discourse of the 2016 election, which took place just six months after I became a naturalized U.S. Even so, I figured I would never make it happen, because I lived under messaging from all directions, my parents included, that my past was shameful and had to be kept hidden. It was my biggest and wildest ambition to write a book that might allow others out there to see themselves reflected in literature, and have them know that it is possible to survive similar circumstances. While I grew up learning English on library books, I never found a book that depicted characters who looked like me and lived in the way my parents and I did.
I’d always dreamed about writing this book. What inspired you to share your tale of being an undocumented child?
In many ways, “Beautiful Country” is such an American story. Her story is a modern day Jewish American immigrant tale, and over e-mail we spoke about what it means to have this book out in the world, her work with Jews of Color and the meaningful publication of “Beautiful Country” on Rosh Hashanah. When she’s not writing incredible memoirs, Wang is a litigator working as the managing partner of Gottlieb & Wang LLP - a firm dedicated to advocating for education and disability rights. Wang is also an active member of a synagogue and its Jews of Color community.
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