Jews are just like everyone else, only more so.

I was certainly open for something being on the edge of a nervous breakdown, perplexed by my own sexuality. I was gay.

I learnt pity, sympathy, and what it was like to be at the other end of the stick. Such lessons can't be learnt in lecture halls.

I recovered my infant Judaism, but in a reformist version.

Discrimination against Jews can be read in Thomas Aquinas, and insults against Jews in Martin Luther.

My mother was a modern woman with a limited interest in religion. When the sun set and the fast of the Day of Atonement ended, she shot from the synagogue like a rocket to dance the Charleston.

Early on I saw the repression and idolatry of Stalinism, and when it cracked, I was open to religion again.