I have been very fortunate that I can count the amount of times I experienced racism in my life on two hands.

I remember quite vividly one time a friend of mine had to let me know as we drove through a town that a look of incredulity I saw on someone's face was racism-- I grew up in a very Jewish town, albeit secular. My town was 40% Jewish. I can't underscore how fortunate I was in this regard. Many Jews had to deal with racism as children. I didn't experience it until I was in college, so I never felt defensive about my ethnicity.

Pros- I felt like even though many people in my community were strangers, I could trust people I just met on the street. I never had to worry about what to wear, it was all black slacks and dress shirts lol.

Cons- I disliked the amount of professional nepotism there was. They are used to being in close proximity at synagogue so if someone bumped into you, they were not in the habit of saying "excuse me." I hated how limp the handshakes were. I hated that everyone would ask for your first and last name immediately on meeting someone... but that's probably a pet peeve.

Israel- at this point, I don't give it much thought, but in general the belief I held was that the Israel/Palestine situation was a battle for survival, and the rest of the world would have been happy for Israel to lose. I never felt racism towards Palestinians, but I did meet many in the community who did. I'm sure we could talk for hours about this one. At the time, I wanted a peaceful solution that had Israel retaining as much land as possible, preferably gaining more as it was the only way I thought Jews in Israel would survive. Many ultra orthodox Jews believe it is against the rules for a Jewish state to exist before the coming of the Messiah, and protest the state. My sect supported Israel very strongly, though.