Judaism gives me a connection to my past. Even though I never knew my grandfather or great-grandfather, I feel connected to them through Jewish traditions that never change - and the synagogue is a place where I feel welcome, despite avoiding services for years. I'm a member of the same synagogue my dad, grandfather, and great-grandfather were members of. Like Dina, I love that Judaism gives me a connection to people in my family. She never mocks Judaism - a completely new concept to her - or makes Dina feel bad, she only asks questions.Īll Tech Considered Reading The Game: The Last Of Us While Ellie is still consumed by hatred and her desire for revenge and justice, she shows the same naive curiosity she had in the first game, before trauma changed her forever moments like this show she isn't all the way gone. The moments in the synagogue really show Ellie and Dina at their best. Talking about it is only a brief moment in the game, but it meant a lot to me. None of these characters seem very relatable to me.īut I could relate to someone like Dina, who views religion a lot like I do - as a source of comfort and family connection. Then there's Andrew Ryan, one of the bad guys in Bioshock, and Meryl Silverburgh, the heavily made-up fighter from the Metal Gear Solid series. Blazkowicz, the main character of the Wolfenstein series, who shoots Nazis and fights Mecha-Hitler, and that's pretty much it. There are only a handful of Jewish characters in video games: There's B.J. I'm Jewish, and at that moment the gears started turning in my head and I realized that I had never played a game with a Jewish character I could relate to. And two, I didn't burst into flames just now.' 'One, there are menorah decorations on the wall. 'How can you tell?' Ellie asks curiously. That search for gasoline takes Ellie and Dina to a food distribution center located in a synagogue, and after climbing through beautiful stained glass windows, Dina gets really excited.

Early in the game, players are set loose in a post-apocalyptic Seattle, retaken by nature, to find the gasoline needed to open a gate and progress along the storyline. Afterwards, she accompanies Ellie on her revenge mission to Seattle. But the happiest moment I had while playing was one not often mentioned: Finding out that Dina, protagonist Ellie's love interest, is Jewish.ĭina starts dating Ellie at the beginning of the game, right before the tragic event that changes her life forever. The Last of Us Part II has no shortage of sad moments for players. Warning: Mild spoilers for The Last of Us Part II

Dina, the love interest in The Last of Us Part II - is a rare bird in gaming: A relatable Jewish character.

Dina the last of us model