Understanding the American Jewish experience is something that is foreign to many Northeast Georgia residents. To give them a better idea, Rachel Glazer of Gainesville has penned a play to explain that theme.

“Cities of Gold: From Appalachia to the Middle East,” will debut at 7 p.m. today in the University of North Georgia Dahlonega’s Hoag Auditorium. The University of North Georgia Interfaith Alliance will present the play for free at 82 College Circle in Dahlonega.

Glazer, a senior psychology student at UNG, is one of 20 Jewish camp staff chosen from a national pool of applicants as a part of the Nachshon Project. This fellowship fosters Jewish American leadership through a study abroad program at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem as well as through individual representative projects.

“The goal of the program is to help young Jewish adults who have an interest in strengthening their understanding of the greater Jewish community and their skills as educators, advocates, and leaders, so that they may step up and stand out in their fields and in American Jewry,” Glazer said.

Upon returning to UNG, Glazer was tasked with implementing a program on Jewish or Israel education. She was granted $1,000 from Nachshon to design and implement the project.

“Since there are so few Jews here and such little knowledge about what Judaism looks like in the U.S., I thought (“Cities of Gold”) might be an interesting way to present it to a non-Jewish audience,” she said. “I’m hoping to expose our campus to a subculture they probably don’t think much about.”

Glazer wrote and compiled the scenes from interviews with other young American Jews. She asked about how they react when people ask them about Israel.

“I felt that a performance art piece might be more accessible for the audience and also easier for me to voice opinions without the pressure of having to represent the entirety of American Jewry,” Glazer said. “On a panel or in a classroom, opinions can often be confused for fact, but on stage, everything is up to interpretation, and that’s ultimately what I want — to offer up different experiences and interpretations of this question and allow the audience to process it in their own personal way.”

For more information about “Cities of Gold,” visit the play’s Facebook event at www.facebook.com/events/171336246563068.