Being an Orthodox American in Switzerland
About Alex Schindler
Alex is a loving mother of 3, Lola, Henry, and Phini. She just started working as a lawyer again. Alex loves to jog around her neighborhood and be with her family and friends. Everyone knows her for being the best storyteller.
Tell me a bit more about yourself with regards to being Orthodox.
My mom and her family came to the US from Ukraine. They left Ukraine during the Second World War, and they were in a Refugee camp in Germany for about 4 years while they waited for a sponsorship to go to the US, or to Canada or anywhere. And my grandfather was sponsored, it was the only way he could enter the country. To America by an Orthodox Church there as a Choir Director. So basically the Orthodox Church is responsible for bringing my Family to America... And then I was baptized Orthodox, it is very different. But in America, everybody is really different, so no one really notices. Coming to Switzerland was a little bit more of a challenge, so far as I was baptized Ukrainian Orthodox, and there isn’t a Ukrainian Orthodox Church in Switzerland. So we go to a Russian Orthodox, that was interesting in so far as it’s different. It looks the same, the words sound the same, the letters look the same but it’s still very different. But we found a really nice community and it works for us…
How important is it to you being Orthodox?
For me it’s really important, it’s just as important as my family. It's important to our lives, we pray in the morning, we pray in the evening, we fast during the week. There are a bunch of touchpoints in our daily lives, so it’s very present in our world, we go to church every week. houses and big appetites in restaurants.”
How was it growing up in America with a Russian Mom?
At the time it was kind of interesting. At the time we were very afraid because of the cold war, we were very afraid of Russia... I remember on the playground, kids would often call me a communist. So at that time if you were from a foreign country, you worked very hard on assimilation. We only spoke Ukrainian at home, we didn’t really do much. This was when I was in grade school, when I moved to New York it was very different... The cold war was on its way to being over and it wasn’t such a topic anymore. But then it became really different because I met so many new people who were from the former Soviet Union, my 2 best friends and college roommates were from the former Soviet Union, so it kind of opened up a whole new world which was really cool.
Do you think your life would’ve been better as a Christian?
“No, I don’t think so, I've never felt discriminated, if anything it opened up more doors for me than it closed.“
What influenced you more, growing up in Catholic America or in an Orthodox Household?
“We would probably need another 1 and a half hours to answer that question the right way. In the US, it’s not mostly anything, I mean, our next-door neighbour was a Buddhist. Somebody else was Jewish, it’s different than it is here where everyone is in the terms of being Protestant or Catholic or you’re something else. I don’t think it played any role, it wasn’t really relevant. It’s such a bouncing path.”
Have people ever treated you differently due to being an American in Switzerland, could you give an example?
“Yeah lots of times. It’s changed over time... So when I first got here there was one story where no one would go in the elevator with me. And I couldn’t figure out why. Kindly I asked why no one ever rides with me in the elevator. And they said “Well you're the American Women, we are afraid you're gonna sue us for sexual harassment”... So yeah, I definitely feel a difference but Socially, not so much.”
“Well everyone should be themselves, being yourself. Then there is no reason to be worried and scared.”
-Alex Schindler
Why do you think they are treating you differently?
“I don’t think it’s intentional, it’s extremely subtle and not biased. Most of the time they “wouldn’t even be aware of the bias that you have. And I think just in the nature of people put others in boxes. And the bias that you have, whether you’re swiss or European or whatever, versus American, is there. If it’s unconscious bias or not, you can not really do anything about it. So I think it’s more of an unconscious bias than being rude. Or being ignorant.”
What do you think people should do when they meet somebody vastly different from them?
“Well everyone should be themselves, being yourself. There is no reason to be worried and scared. Just be yourself, you know there is really no reason to be afraid…”
Have people ever treated you differently due to the bad stereotypes about Americans?
“You hear a lot of that, very often... Americans would take their place, and there are a lot of different people with a lot of different views. But you know, here it’s easy to kind of paint everybody with the same brush… When we were going to Texas, for this last holiday. One of the kids in Phini’s class said “If you go to Texas everybody is really fat” And this kid has never been to America in his life. And so Phini when we were at the Airport [He said] “Mom, not everybody is fat here Mama.”.”
Do you ever feel like you're not part of the community because you are American?
“Where we live now [Kuesnacht], no. When we lived in Wollishofen, yes. We lived there for 6 years and we knew like 2 neighbors. `Here, it’s a mix between Swiss and International, we know everybody, you feel totally integrated.”
Do you think as an American you sometimes have advantages over other people around you?
“I speak English really well. This could go anywhere. Just culturally, as an American, you're very open-minded. It can be, you are very open-minded to anything that comes across your path. And Americans culturally are very imaginative, very entrepreneurial. And those are great skills to have, and no matter where you are.”
““Be thoughtful of who people are, what their identities are, and how that informs them. Maybe in short you’d say, you can’t judge a book by its cover.””
