Elianna Oken: She Found Out She Wasn't Jewish... After Living Jewish Her Entire Life

Are you nervous that the lifestyle change that an Orthodox life would alter?

Even something so simple as, like, going to a restaurant with some friends.

It's like, "I can't go to that restaurant." Will my friends be okay to come to now a kosher restaurant, might be slightly more expensive? [laughs]

Slightly is a understatement.

You've gone through experiences of, like, questioning your identity and trying to fit in.

What advice do you have? Eliana Oken grew up Jewish.

Hebrew school, Holocaust survivor grandparents, Shabbat every week.

Then her sister sent a text, "Are we even Jewish?" And the answer cost her everything she thought her life was going to be.

I come from Holocaust surviving grandparents.

No way am I letting Hitler win that my kids aren't gonna be Shomer Shabbat.

Absolutely not.

You've gone through experiences of, like, questioning your identity and trying to fit in.

What advice do you have?

I used to be very insecure about this whole situation.

It's why I was apprehensive of even coming here to tell my story, but once you know that Hashem has a plan for you, you can't be insecure.

Like, Hashem gave me this situation.

Every Jewish kid has had this conversation at some point.

If you found out tomorrow that you weren't Jewish, what's the first thing that you would eat? For most of us, it's just a hypothetical.

For Eliana, it became reality.

Raised in a Jewish home, educated in Jewish schools, and proud of her family's Jewish heritage, she never questioned who she was.

But after learning that there was a question surrounding her Jewish status, everything changed.

She had two choices: ignore it or question everything she believed about herself.

This is Eliana's story.

This episode is in loving memory of Shem Tov Ben Yaakov Shlema and Miriam Sarabas Yaakov Moshe.

And thank you to this week's sponsors, Kol Chabad, Whale Tales, Chagri Rim Balev, Simchonim, and BF Design.

Here we go.