Affirming My Jewish Identity Evolve Essay Summary By Nina Mandel Rabbi Nina Mandel admits her discomfort with a line from Birkhot Hashakhar, the morning blessings, and examines why thanking God for making her “a Jew” brings about such complicated feelings. This is a summary of an essay available in the "Why be Jewish?" section of Evolve: Groundbreaking Jewish Conversations. Click here to read the full essay. Click here for a categorized listing of all essays from Evolve: Groundbreaking Conversations.