Khalid nods towards me, his eyebrows rising slightly. I hadn’t yet told Khalid or anyone else that I met in Yemen that was a Jew. It hadn’t come up, it didn’t matter, I told myself. But I was also afraid of how they would react.
When people learn that, as a lifelong and practicing Christian, I am married to a Jewish man and that we practice both religions in our house, I often become the safe person to ask about Judaism. I like this advocate role for the opportunity it gives me to gently encourage folks to look at ways in which their privilege as a member of a majority population can sometimes cause them to cause offense.