Saying Inshallah with Chutzpah: A Gefilte Fish Out of Water Story

From floundering to navigating, this gefilte-fish-out-of-water story follows the unorthodox path of a Jewish woman working for a Muslim government.

“Marrying one woman is like eating chicken every day for the rest of your life,” the cultural attaché—a.k.a. my boss—warned the week before my Jewish wedding. I replied, “I like chicken."

Seven months before her traditional Jewish wedding to Tyrone, her beau of eight years, Jessica Keith made the impulsive decision to move away, accepting an offer to work for the Consulate of Kuwait in Los Angeles. The work culture was unfamiliar territory—with a lot to unpack—she felt lost in translation. The job entailed corralling eighteen-year-old, doe-eyed Muslim boys and releasing them into the wild for their initiation into the western world—college in the U.S.

With crippling anxiety fueled by unpredictable panic attacks, Jessica never believed she could walk down an aisle. She said, “I can’t” so many times that she never thought she’d say “I do.” After finally setting the wedding date, nothing seemed to go right. The rabbi refused to perform the interfaith ceremony, and her grandmother warned, “You can’t marry a Black man.” Rather than speak up Jessica found it easier to just bite her tongue. But when she learns on the job, “Jews need not apply,” it shatters her faith in herself.

Adrift in life and at work, Jessica learns that it takes resilience to persevere.