Lambert is home to many cultural clubs and societies, offering connecting spaces for Muslim, Christian, Indian, Chinese, Korean, Hispanic, Queer and, most recently, Jewish students. The Jewish Cultural Club (JCC) was established at the beginning of the 2023-2024 school year and is sponsored by Jewish Social Studies teacher Mrs. Smirnov.
Meeting every Jewish holiday, club members and officers will play traditional games (mostly dreidel), discuss Jewish culture and say a prayer. Averaging 30 regular members, the demographic makeup of Jewish Cultural Club meetings is often a near-equal mix of Jewish and non-Jewish students.
“For now, we’ve just done occasional meetings now and then because of the fact that the club is so new and fresh, so we’re still trying to find our footing,” Eric Grinberg, Club Vice President and Lambert sophomore, said. “I think the first meeting we had, there were donuts and food and games and fun activities, and it’s not all strictly related to religious food.”
A core goal of JCC is to unify and connect diasporic Jewish students at Lambert. The club achieves this by spreading awareness through its Instagram page, word of mouth and school announcements. Every student at Lambert is invited to attend JCC meetings and learn more about the history, culture and practices of Judaism.
“The goal of Jewish Cultural Club is to kind of bring this unification or try to bring more kids who are from the same culture, from the same heritage, from the same history,” Eric said. “But it’s not just for Jews. It’s for anyone who’s interested. That was the goal of the club, to just bring people together.”
Another integral mission of the Jewish Cultural Club is to bring Jewish students closer to their cultural identity and heritage. JCC works to emphasize the importance of togetherness and unity, regardless of whether its members are religious or secular.
“Some members are well-connected to their Jewish cultural identity, and some of them aren’t, and that was kind of the goal, to bring you back to the culture, or at least connect you to it,” Eric said. “I’m not a very religious person, but I think that Jewish culture to me is more about understanding your history, your family, where you come from and connecting with the religion, whether it’s in a secular way or its in a religious way.”
One’s community is an invaluable part of not just students traversing high school but life in general. Many can agree that it’s essential to know people who have your back, support you and trust you, and JCC implores students to find substantial connections to their own cultures, religions and/or histories.
“Just as any club, it’s important to have people who make you feel like you’re a part of a community or feel like you are one of a group,” Eric said. “The fact that there are people who you know are similar to you, whether it’s in religion, culture, heritage, makes people feel comfortable in their culture, comfortable in their religion, comfortable in who they are, and you can connect to other people through that.”
The exact future of the Jewish Cultural Club is speculative, yet limitless possibilities exist. After finding its footing in the extracurricular ecosystem, it is likely that the club will grow in membership and host larger meetings and events to further embrace Jewish heritage, history, culture and identity as students at Lambert High School.
