May is Jewish American Heritage Month, a time to highlight and celebrate Jewish identity and reflections of what it means to be Jewish.
Southern Nevada has a diverse Jewish community, including 12-year-old Arianna Shaprow, whose heritage has helped her confirm her Jewish faith.
Shaprow tells me she decided this May, being Jewish American Heritage Month, was the perfect time to confirm and celebrate her faith with a bat mitzvah.
The United States and Israel make up the majority of the world's Jewish population. More and more people these days are finding their Jewish roots and relatives through DNA testing.
Shaprow herself has done extensive research on her Midwestern Jewish roots and told me about some of the ways her Jewish relatives left their mark in the community.
"So my great-great grandfather, Jack Shapiro, founded a school in Ashdod, Israel, and he was also the president of a synagogue in Flint, Michigan called Congregation Beth Israel," Shaprow told me. "And then my great-great grandmother, Gladys, was the president of Hadassah in Michigan."
Through the years, her family has passed down important Jewish symbols, like a Menorah from Jerusalem.
Her pride in her heritage has led to concerns about rising antisemitism and recent anti-Israel protests on college campuses across the U.S. Shaprow tells me that inspired her to write a poem titled "Your Hate" that's now on display at museums, including the Children's Discovery Museum in Las Vegas and Phoenix.
"Rhetoric creates tensions, divisions, incisions through our souls," Shaprow writes. "We must fight back against your hate and your attempts to discriminate."
