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Alyssa Constad (Courtesy of Alyssa Constad)<\/p>\n Alyssa Constad (Courtesy of Alyssa Constad)<\/p>\n
For Alyssa Constad, ending up at Mishkan Shalom in Manayunk was sort of a happenstance.<\/p>\n
\u201cI found them because I was looking for a rabbi who would do my daughter\u2019s naming ceremony. I wasn\u2019t necessarily looking to join a synagogue \u2014 I\u2019m pretty sure I Googled \u2018rabbis near me\u2019 or something like that,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Her family ended up joining the synagogue because the Mishkan Shalom schedule was so packed that only members could find their way into the schedule for lifecycle ceremonies.<\/p>\n
But what started as a potential one-off event became a wonderful decision for Constad.<\/p>\n
\u201cIts values really align with mine. There\u2019s a lot of other interfaith couples there, which was big for me, because my husband felt welcome and he\u2019s never felt uncomfortable there, and so that\u2019s what prompted us to become members there,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Constad, who lives in Manayunk, is navigating life while raising her young daughter with Jewish values. Constad\u2019s journey with Judaism hasn\u2019t been linear. She was raised in the faith, but felt herself stray as she got older.<\/p>\n
\u201c[Growing up] it was a cultural connection and a social connection, but I don\u2019t think I would ever really call myself religious. I think I kind of started to disconnect a bit when my sister got married [because] her husband is not Jewish and my childhood rabbi refused to marry her because she wasn\u2019t marrying someone Jewish,\u201d Constad said.<\/p>\n
But Constad always knew that she wanted her children to be Jewish. Her husband agreed to this, and so they sought to figure out what their Jewish life would look like. Constad didn\u2019t know much about Reconstructionist Judaism, but quickly came to appreciate it within the context of Mishkan Shalom.<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t know anything about the Reconstructionist movement until I moved to Philadelphia,\u201d she said. \u201cThey\u2019re so lovely and welcoming. For my daughter\u2019s naming ceremony, my husband\u2019s family came, and they had no idea what was going on but the rabbi was so gung-ho about making sure everyone felt welcome and included. It\u2019s just a really beautiful community.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Courtesy of Alyssa Constad<\/p>\n
Constad\u2019s daughter is 3 and a half years old, so the family is limited in their Jewish involvement at this point, mostly attending High Holiday services or Shabbat services that are geared toward those with young children. However, once her daughter is old enough, Constad wants her to attend religious school and become more involved. Hopefully, that initiative comes from within, too, as Constad remembers being younger and not always leaping at the chance to go to synagogue.<\/p>\n
\u201cI remember going to High Holiday services with my parents and figuring out how many bathroom breaks I could ask my mom for,\u201d she said with a laugh.<\/p>\n
When Constad isn\u2019t with her family or at shul, she can be found doing her day job: working as a public historian with the Carpenters\u2019 Company in Philadelphia. The organization owns and operates Carpenters\u2019 Hall, which is an 18th-century building that is the birthplace of the commonwealth of Pennsylvania. For Constad, history has always been a passion, and she credits Jewish history as a part of what led her to her current role.<\/p>\n
After college, Constad interned at a synagogue and museum in New York City called the Museum at Eldridge Street.<\/p>\n
\u201cBeing able to work there and not only learn about the history of the Jewish community but be introduced to preservation, which has been super tangential to my whole career [was great],\u201d she said. \u201cBut what really made me love museums when I was working there was one of my jobs, which was to help give tours to the public coming in.\u201d<\/p>\n
At the museum, Constad met people who grew up on Manhattan\u2019s Lower East Side and had their own memories to contribute. She met people from elsewhere in the United States, as well as folks from across the world who had never met any Jews before.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo being able to share that passion with them, and seeing the spark in their eye and them getting really excited about this history and this beautiful building is what made me fall in love with this career,\u201d Constad said.<\/p>\n
Constad loves her work as a public historian, where part of her job is to find answers to some of history\u2019s questions. While she is adept at that, she is still exploring the future of her own life and her family\u2019s Jewish identity.<\/p>\n
\u201cI see us continuing to be involved in the community as [my daughter] gets older and things get a little bit easier. But thinking about how to keep [Jewish values and traditions] in our household is something that\u2019s constantly on my mind, and I\u2019m not sure that it\u2019s something that I necessarily have all the answers to yet,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n