For Shoshana Silverman-Pear, a relationship with God is important. Today, she lives a relatively strict religious lifestyle, albeit less strict than the one she was raised in. Her understanding of God is one that is rooted in his powerful love.

“People are [taught] to fear God and to love him. I’ve never really understood the fear aspect,” she said. “I love God because it’s beautiful, and I want my children to experience that love and that beauty in Judaism.”

She leads classrooms with the youngest learners — pre-K, and even toddlers. In Philadelphia, Silverman-Pear taught toddlers for two years as an assistant before taking over the lead position in her final year. Now in Baltimore, she has secured a job with Bnos Yisrael daycare.

For her, there aren’t many better ways to spend her days. As the oldest among her brothers and sisters, it comes naturally to her.

“I’ve loved [working with kids] since I was little. My mother always loved kids, and she fostered that love in all of us. To help us not be jealous of new siblings, each time a baby was born, the baby gave us a gift that ‘they’ bought for us,” Silverman-Pear said. “We all fight over the baby whenever there’s one in the house.”

Silverman-Pear said that one of her favorite parts about Judaism is that it fosters respect — respect of elders, of parents, of contemporaries, of people with different opinions and experiences and of young children, too. It’s that idea that helps her in the classroom, where she makes sure to never underrate the mind of a young child.

“A lot of people don’t understand that little kids also deserve respect. They understand and realize and know more about what’s going on around them then people give them credit for,” she said. “Kids are pretty smart. They may not necessarily be able to communicate what they need because they’re learning about how to do that — honestly, so are adults half the time.”

Respect is big for Silverman-Pear and the family she wants to build with her husband. She sees Judaism as a religion that fosters conversation and allows for debate without that debate encroaching on how someone is treated in the bigger picture.

“[It’s not about] necessarily agreeing with everything, but saying, ‘okay, this is your opinion on whatever the subject is,’ and respecting boundaries, respecting this is what you’re okay with and not okay with. Who you are as a person [is not determined by your opinion],” she said.

When she met her husband, it was thanks to a blind date. That meeting was New Year’s Eve in Philadelphia. They married last month. Safe to say, when she fell, she fell hard.

“He’s very similar to me in his quirkiness,” she said, adding they offset and complement each other well.

Today, the couple lives between Pikesville and Mount Washington. They are starting a Jewish life together, and while not a native, she enjoys her new home.

Silverman-Pear isn’t far from her family in Philadelphia. Her husband is a Baltimore native, and his family is here, meaning they are never far from their loved ones. Eventually, though, their goal is to do what many Jews do and make aliyah.
For Silverman-Pear, it would be a sort of homecoming.

“I was actually born there,” she said. “Although I am not a citizen, [because] my parents were on student visas at the time. They met in Jerusalem and got married in Jerusalem.”

Silverman-Pear believes it is where she and her family are meant to be.

“America is very nice to us [Jews]. They give you a place to live with minor discrimination, although I don’t know how much we can say about that now because it’s getting worse. We’ve been able to live here for many years, we have freedom of religion, we have freedom of speech, we have all these things,” she said. “But America is not home, Israel is.”

While in Baltimore, Silverman-Pear is focused on her family, her faith and pursuing her career as an educator.

Silverman-Pear and her husband are members of Congregation Tiferes Yisroel, and while she hasn’t made it to the shul yet, she tries to daven in the mornings. She keeps kosher, covers her hair and dresses modestly.

For Silverman-Pear, Judaism is about the love of God. Soon, she hopes to be able to spread that love to her own children, as well.

aguckes@midatlanticmedia.com