An Interaction at the Bowling Alley with a Lakewood Family

The original story (see below) was posted on the  Facebook page Portraits of the Jersey Shore  by Mr. Gregory Andrus and has been picked up by other media outlets. it was on Chol Hamoed Pesach.

This is a follow up post:
Hi everyone, Gregory from Portraits of the Jersey Shore sharing my heart here, and I just have to say how blown away I am for a second. I shared abut how I became friends with this man pictured here, Joel, and how I really enjoyed getting to know some of the people in his Orthodox community yesterday while bowling with my family. That post has reached over 8,000 people, has over 800 "reactions," 60 shares, and over 50 comments. The conversations that have ensued from people of different backgrounds and cultural contexts here on this page from that post have been amazing. People have been sharing their perspectives, their hopes - and yes their fears - with each other, and no one is calling each other names, or being disrespectful or mean-spirited in any way. You all are what makes this page so amazing. I am such a grateful man, for you each give me continued hope that this world can be a better place, one person, one interaction, one story at a time.

Original Post
My family and I went to the local bowling lanes on this rainy day. The place was filled to overflowing with people from the Orthodox Community, as they had off in celebration of their Passover. I didn’t mind, it just meant that we had to wait longer to get a lane. Now, elephant in the room, it is no secret that this community has been reviled wide and far by many people who live in proximity to the Orthodox community. So I was interested in seeing what my experience would be.

As my family waited in line for shoes, a father with little kids who were ahead of us, saw we were waiting behind them and insisted we go ahead of them when it was their turn. Then this man pictured here, Joel, helped clear out the extra bowling balls so we would have room to put ours down. We settled into the lane next to theirs. He and I became fast friends, and after a while, our families began to cheer each other on when someone had a good score. We enjoyed each other so much. Everywhere throughout the bowling lanes, kids, moms, dads would all smile at me as I walked by and smiled at them.

I talked to Joel and asked him about the reputation the Orthodox community seems to have been given…)

“People make assumptions about our entire community based on word of mouth. Sure there are some bad apples, but there are bad apples with any community, Mexican, Chinese, Christian... I wish people of all different cultures would show each other respect. People want us to blend in with their version of what culture should be, but I think Mexicans should be able to keep their culture, and the same for the Chinese, or Christians and yes, us too.

I wish people would stop being prejudiced just because they don’t understand someone else’s culture, and take the time to get to know each other without trying to change each other. We need to respect each other and live in peace with one another. We are all here on earth living together, and we are all loved by God.”