F358 Blog

2006-12-14T17:57:00.000-08:00

Since it is Hanukkah time, I’ve decided to talk about it a little bit. Well, all my friends that aren’t Jewish always tell me how lucky I am to celebrate Hanukkah because there are eight nights of it. Well like Christmas I believe that Hanukkah has lost its true meaning. Now all we think about it presents and really that’s not what it is all about. Hanukkah is the festival of lights. The reason we celebrate Hanukkah and light the menorah is because during the time that we were fighting with the Greek Syrians due to the fact that they wanted to ban Judaism and desecrate the temple, there was a miracle. The same amount of oil that we had burned for eight days in the temples menorah instead of just one day. Hanukkah is usually celebrated by lighting the candles on the menorah, one on the first night and an additional one each succeeding night. Usually Jews will eat food friend in oil, like potato pancakes and jelly doughnuts. Oil is a big part of Hanukkah. We will also play with a dreidel, which is a 4 sided top. You play this game with money and the different Hebrew letters mean different amount of money. I think that these days most families don’t even play with the dreidels. It is a shame that the background behind Hanukkah is started to fade. I know my little cousins go to Hebrew school and learn about all this history, but when it comes down to it all they want it presents. I mean who wouldn’t want a present, but I think that somehow the families have to really ingrain the history o the celebration into their children’s heads, and remind them that its not all about the presents

2006-12-14T17:46:00.000-08:00

I was thinking about the topic of Jews of Color and I decided to look into it a little more because I found it very interesting. I found this website about Jews of color. I was reading the introduction on the website and it explained who they were. It said that Jews come in all different kinds of colors, styles, races and flavors. They said that there are strawberry Jews, orange Jews, vanilla Jews, chocolate Jews, Chinese Jews, Mexican Jews, musical Jews, artistic Jews, and the list goes on. I liked how they put that. They basically said with the Jews of color category, any Jewish person can fit. Jews of Color is an organization that brings Jews of Color together spiritually, physically and economically through communication via internet, telephone and music. Their goal is to create an intranet between Jews of Color to be able to weave the different aspects of their cultures harmoniously and seamlessly within Judaism through the promotion of the wisdom of Torah, music and common sense. One of their goals at this point is to begin a dating site called Jews of Color. Then there was a button that said single? And when you clicked on it you could click on a button that took you to jmatch.com, which is a Jewish dating service. My only question is do you think that Jews of Color should have their own dating service, different from jmatch.com? There was another button that you could click on that took you to another Jewish dating service that was called twentyfoursix.com. On this website they also had a button for women, they had pictures, poetry, other links, etc. This page was kind of like the websites we looked at for reform Judaism, conservative Judaism, and orthodox Judaism except it was Jews of Color. (jewsofcolor.net)

2006-12-14T17:34:00.000-08:00

Anti Semitism is prejudice against Jews as a religious or ethnic group. It could be individual hatred or institutionalized, violent persecution. The biggest Anti Semitism that has ever happened was Adolf Hitler and the Nazis, which lead to the holocaust. There is religious anti-Semitism that is the practice of Judaism itself that defined the characteristics of the anti-Semitic attacks. The only way that these attacks could stop are if the Jews stopped practicing or changed their public faith, which obviously isn’t going to happen. Then there is racial anti-Semitism, this replaced hatred of the Jewish religion with the concept that the Jews themselves were a distinct and inferior race. This is another question that I can’t really seem to answer, the question is Judaism a Race? Then there is New anti-Semitism, which is considered by some as a new form of the 21st century anti-Semitism. This focuses on the opposition to the emergence of the Jewish homeland in Israel. I don’t really see much anti-Semitism around that much. I usually relate anti-Semitism with the Nazi’s. I can remember this one time in High School some kids drew swastikas on the side of the garages at the High School. To me that is a total Anti-Semitic act. That had to be around my freshman year of high school and I think that was the last time that I have ever seen anything like that. So, I believe that anti-Semitism is getting better, but that can just be in my personal life.

2006-12-14T14:33:00.000-08:00

Awhile ago my mom came home from work one say with this book. It was a book about American Jewish words. It was words that a Jew might say and then the definitions that a Jew might use to describe the word. I thought that this was actually pretty funny. These words aren’t words that people would really use, I don’t think. I have never heard of any of them and I don’t think that Jews really make up their own language. Here are some of the words that I found in the book.
Jewbilation-Pride in finding out that one's favorite celebrity is Jewish.
Torahfied-Inability to remember one's lines at one's Bar or Bat mitzvah.
Matzilation-Smashing a piece of matzo to bits while trying to butter it.
Bubbegum-Candy one's mother gives to her grandchildren that she never gave to her own children.
Chutzpap-A father who wakes his wife at 400 AM so she can change the baby's diaper.
Rosh Hashanana -A rock 'n roll band from Brooklyn.
Re-Shtetlement-Moving from New Jersey to Florida and finding all your old neighbors live in the same condo as you.
Those are just a few examples. I find them funny. But, once again they are totally stereotyping Jewish people. And obviously Jews don’t really use these words. Like, if you were to go up to another Jew and say Bubbegum to them I doubt they would even have a clue to what you were talking about.

2006-12-14T14:25:00.000-08:00

I was talking to my friend today and we were talking about stereotyping Jewish people. He was telling me about this website online that had jokes about Jewish people. So, I decided to take a look at it. I don’t really get offended by jokes so this didn’t offend me but I can see how it could offend someone who doesn’t really agree with the stereotyping of Jewish people. To give you a taste of these jokes (which really aren’t funny) –
*Q: Why do Jewish Mothers make great parole officers?*A: They never let anyone finish a sentence.
So, I guess a stereotype is that Jewish women talk a lot.
*Q: What's a Jewish American Princess' favorite position?*A: Facing Bloomingdale's
A “JAP” definitely likes to shop and buy expensive things, name brand.
*A Jewish boy comes home from school and tells his mother he's been given a part in the school play. *"Wonderful. What part is it?"*The boy says,"I play the part of the Jewish husband."*The mother scowls and says, "Go back and tell the teacher you want a speaking part."
So, Jewish men don’t really have a say in anything, which goes back to the stereotype of jewish women talking to much.
* Q: What did the waiter ask the group of dining Jewish mothers?* A: 'Is ANYTHING all right?'
Stereotype, nothing is ever good enough for Jewish women.

2006-12-14T14:14:00.000-08:00

I was searching the web and I came across a website that had different stereotypes of Jewish people. I found this very interesting and kind of funny. Some of the stereotypes were:
“He didn’t look Jewish” – so what does it mean to look Jewish? (hook-nosed?)
“Jews know how to make money”
“The Jews control everything”
Some positive stereotypes about Jewish people that I found were things like, Intelligence, Realism, Sophistication and Responsibility. Then some negative stereotypes that I found were, Obsessed with money, Cunning, Obtrusiveness, Mercenariness, Conceitedness. Of course I have heard all of these before, but I don’t even necessarily agree with these stereotypes. I think that it really all depends on the person because you can say something like these stereotypes with any person. You don’t have to be Jewish to be obsessed with money, I know many non-Jews that are totally obsessed with money. Also, Asian people have a stereotype of being intelligent so how can Jewish and Asian people have the same stereotype? I don’t really agree with stereotypes because no matter what your religion or culture you are who you are and stereotypes definitely don’t include all the people from one group.

2006-12-14T13:41:00.000-08:00

I don’t really understand how messianic Judaism can be a branch of Judaism, when they believe that Jesus is the messiah and Jews are still waiting for the messiah to come. I think that is should be a branch of Christianity, or maybe even in a category be itself. Reform, Conservative and Orthodox Jews do not accept Messianic Judaism as a branch of Judaism. In Messianic Judaism, a Messianic believer is usually a self-appointed term and almost always describes someone who believes Jesus is the Jewish Messiah and believes obedience to the Torah is the proper expression of faith. Which Jews do not believe this at all. Rabbinic Jews believe that Messianic Jews as Christians, actually they believe that anyone who thinks that Jesus is the Messiah is no longer Jewish. Some mainstream Messianics refer to themselves as Messianics, non-Jewish Messianics or Messianic Gerim. So, basically they are not really considering themselves to be Jewish. I don’t really understand the whole Messianic religion. It seems to me as though there isn’t really one way to categorize these Messianics. I was looking into the Messianic Jews alittle bit and I found out that there are about 47,000 followers and about 280 congregations worldwide. So, it is not a terribly large group, but I think that it might become bigger, if they can really put their religion into its own kind of category.

2006-12-14T12:55:00.000-08:00

I started working at the Scholars Inn Bakehouse my sophomore year of college. For some reason I feel like this place attracts Jews. I never realized how many Jewish people were in Bloomington until I started working here. The owners of the Bakehouse are Jewish, so that might have something to do with it. During Passover we sell fried matzah and matzah ball soup. I never thought that working in Bloomington I would work at a place that actually even knew what Passover was. We also make our own Challah (try listening to people pronounce that, its hilarious) and it is baked fresh every Friday. There is also a standing order for Beth Shalom that we have so I feel like that might be why more Jewish people come to the bakehouse because they know what its like. I find this interesting because there are not many places in Bloomington where you can find a business that knows what its like to be Jewish. One funny thing is that some of my coworkers think that Jewish people come into the bakehouse because we sell bagels. Apparently non-jews associate bagels with jews.

2006-12-14T12:50:00.000-08:00

I think that it is kind of funny that there is a decent amount of Jewish people here at IU. But, when you start looking into it most of the Jews here are from the east coast. I remember when I first came to school here; most of the people that I met have never even met a Jew before, let alone had a friend that was Jewish. I found that really hard to believe because I was used to being around a lot of Jews. First of all I am from New Jersey and second of all I went to sleep away camp for eight years, where the majority of the kids were Jewish. As the years past here at IU, my friends started to meet more Jewish people and realize that it is not that uncommon. Most of my friends from Indiana did not go to high school with any Jewish people. They never went to a Bar or Bat Mitzvah, which I find so weird because when I was in middle school that is like what we did on the weekends. I just think it is crazy how so many Jewish people are at IU, but really because they come from the east coast, not because they are from Indiana.

2006-12-14T12:39:00.000-08:00

My final paper is about the role women have in the Jewish Religion.

One aspect of the Jewish religion that I was always curious about was the way women were perceived. I knew that men were considered to be higher up then women, but I also knew that recently the role of women had changed. I wanted to look at the role of women through three different movements in the Jewish religion. Those movements are the Orthodox, Conservative, and Reform movements. I had an idea of the role of women in these movements but I wanted to see how they were either similar or different. In this paper I will give you a little background on the role of women in the three different movements, then I will go into some articles about different groups and ways in which Jewish women have formed or come about, lastly you will be able to read an interview that I had with Rabbi Sue, who is a women Rabbi here at the Hillel at IU.
Here is some background information on women in the Orthodox, Conservative and Reform movements of the Jewish Religion. In the Orthodox movement women usually do not touch, socialize, or sit next to men other then their husbands or relatives. Orthodox women refrain from contact with their husbands while they are menstruating and right after the birth of a child. In education Orthodox women are usually discouraged from any education beyond the understanding of the practical aspects of the Torah and the rules necessary to run a Jewish household. Most Orthodox synagogues do not allow woman to become the president of a congregation or give a brief discourse on the weekly Torah portion. Many Orthodox Rabbis believe that it is inappropriate for women to be involved in any form of politics or leadership. In the Orthodox synagogue the women and men are usually separated either by a curtain, wall, or the women will sit up on a second level.
Within the past thirty years there has been a revolution in the way Conservative Judaism views women. Women are now allowed to publicly read the Torah, be part of the minyan, be called for an aliyah to read the Torah, serve as a Cantor, serve as a Rabbi, and wear tallit and tefillin. Although this revolution has occurred it is up to the Rabbi of the congregation to choose if they would like to adopt these rules. In the Conservative movement they believe that a child is only Jewish if his/her mother is Jewish.
Like the Conservative movement, the Reform movement has also had a revolution in the way they view women. Reform Judaism also now allows women to publicly read the Torah, be part of the minyan, and be called for an aliyah to read the Torah, serve as a Cantor, serve as a Rabbi, and wear tallit and tefillin. Reform Judaism has rejected the traditional Jewish view of matrilineal descent. They say that is any one parent is Jewish, and then the child is automatically Jewish as long as the child is raised as a Jew. Reform Judaism generally holds that the various differences between men and women’s roles in traditional Jewish law are not relevant to modern conditions and not applicable today.
As you can see from this background information on the roles of women in the Orthodox, Conservative, and Reform Jewish movements they are all different. Although, Conservative and Reform Judaism believe in a lot of the same ways to treat women, it seems as thought Reform Judaism treats women and men almost exactly the same. The Conservative movement follows a lot of the same rules as the Reform movement, but also can possibly follow a lot of the same rules as the Orthodox movement, do to the fact that each Rabbi at that particular synagogue has a say in how he wants his temple to run.
Can women lead the synagogue? In Orthodox Judaism, no (Padgett, pg. 1). But that does not mean that they cannot lead. They can lead politically and philosophically. They can also lead in scholarship. Rabbis are trying to respect the requests of women, yet still maintain the tradition. That is why scholarship has been opened up to women. The world in general has learned the importance of educating women and the Orthodox community is not different.
Men are expected to lead the prayer. That is tradition. There have been some attempts by women to introduce this practice of leading prayers, but it has not taken hold in the community, because of the Jewish people wanting to follow tradition. Women can lead in other ways, including at home, or in religious discussion at conferences, lectures or seminars. Just because men can lead prayer does not make them any better then women. Women are allowed to teach other women and they are allowed to teach children. Women leading services is still a very controversial topic. Some men are convinced that women can lead. Then some believe that women should be in the background and that God did not call women to lead services. You can also think of it this way, if women had nothing to do with the temple, then there would not be enough men in the services to have a full service. You need women to reproduce and without them you would not have a congregation.
“Finding my religion; it’s the tradition that marks the passage into adulthood for girls, but now an increasing number of women, it is a Bat-Mitzvah.” Miriam, rejoicing after the Red Sea parted during the Jews’ flight from Egypt, had led others in prayer, an act unheard of for women in her time and still rare during my mother’s childhood and even part of mine (Wertheimer, pg. 1). During the last decade, the practice of an adult marking a Bat Mitzvah had become increasingly popular and an institution in both the Reform and Conservative temples. Even Orthodox women are shaking up tradition, learning rituals once forbidden to them, though the pace of change is slower. For example, if an Orthodox woman leads a service today, something unheard of a generation ago, it’s almost always in from of women only.
Until the 1960s and 1970s, Jewish girls in the United States were not encouraged and sometimes not permitted to have a bat mitzvah ceremony (Wertheimer, pg. 2). “Women became doctors. They became lawyers and whatever else, and nobody questioned that. But in the religious field, the feeling was you don’t have to bother with the women. I feel the women are the mothers, the wives, and they should know what they’re talking about” (Hadassah Blocker). Hadassah is a national Jewish women’s group. I know that when I was born my Grandmother got me a membership to Hadassah and I am now a member for life, I get newsletters all the time about it, and it is just for Jewish Women. “There are people who believe the synagogue is the realm of men,” says Barbara Spack, the Hadassah bat mitzvah program founder. “We wanted to make equal access for all.”
Many women just want to become competent in the practices of Judaism. There have been women of all branches who didn’t know Hebrew or knew rudimentary Hebrew and knew nothing about Jewish history. These women were struggling with questions like, what does it mean to be Jewish? Why even bother? These are some questions that I have even asked myself before. Still to this day I can’t really answer them. Women did not get access to a Jewish education and public worship until the mid 19th century, and the first women were not ordained as Rabbis until the early 1970s. As the feminist movement took off in the United States, so did Jewish women’s push to get the education they needed to become ritual leaders in the sanctuary. Women already served on boards of temples, yet during services, they did not know enough to practice the ancient tradition of chanting from the Torah (Wertheimer, pg. 2). In the last decade, many women who grew up in secular Jewish homes and never attended religious school joined the classes to affirm their Jewish identity. For some women, the experience of adult Bat Mitzvah is more than empowering, it is a life changing event. After some women have an adult Bat Mitzvah they might become a cantor, Jewish educator, Rabbis, etc.
The Reform movement has recently brought out the Torah: A Women’s Commentary. The goal of this enormous and ground breaking project is to place women’s voices alongside the male voices of tradition. The women of the text, become not simply secondary characters, but primary in their own right. For example, in the story of Judah and Tamar in Genesis 38, becomes no longer just one episode in the life o Judah, but rather a complete and rich tale about insights into broken promises, being a childless widow in biblical society, and the avenues of redress that were open to women (Person, pg. 1). Though the women of the Bible may have heard God’s voice, or lived lives of heroic struggle, like all women they also bled and nursed and gave birth and dealt with infertility and the fear of rape. Whereas these details may be mentioned only in passing in the text, and may be only minor events in the big picture of the biblical narrative, they are recognized as potential windows into women’s lives. In the Bible, Tamar used clothing to hide her identity and seduce her father in law in order to get what was rightfully hers. Likewise, Rebekah used clothing and food to help Jacob trick Isaac.
Ten thousand participants throughout North America in nearly three hundred synagogues will engage in a movement-wide Torah study (Person, pg. 2). During this study of Parashat Chayei Sarah, as seen through the eyes of women, provocative questions will be addressed and they will perhaps all begin to gain a new perspective on the told of women in the Bible. When women study Torah, they take the rightful place in a sacred dialogue. They declare that the lives of women of the Torah matter, and therefore that the lives and the concerns of women matter too. The study of Torah by women, and the writing of Torah commentary by women, is not meant to compete, but rather to complete the richness of the Torah study that has come before. In order to truly be a holy community before God, we must revere both the women and the men of our tradition. We must listen to everyone’s voices, not limit the possibilities for holiness based solely on gender identification. Inspired by the cacophony of diverse voices, they are able to inch even closer to wholeness and therefore to holiness.
I decided to ask Rabbi Sue Shifron (the Rabbi at the Hillel here at Indiana University) a few questions about her Jewish background and how it is to be a women Rabbi. I contacted her through email do to the fact that I have a very busy schedule and I am sure she does as well. I started out by asking her what kind of role Judaism played in her childhood. She told me that as a child she was involved in the Jewish community and was Bat Mitzvah and went to Hebrew school. She said that she got very involved in the Jewish community in high school through youth groups. At this point it was her decision to get so involved. I was very curious as to what made her become a Rabbi and if there was anything in-particular that made her decide to become a Rabbi. She said that she was very active in the Jewish community in high school. Then when she got to college (at IU) the Hillel was not very strong and she decided that she needed a break from the Jewish community. On her break she realized that she really missed the involvement that she used to have in the Jewish community. Rabbi Sue said that she also had an experience where someone tried to proselytize her and that really pushed her to get more involved in Judaism. I found it very interesting that Rabbi Sue took time off from the Jewish community just because of the Hillel here on campus. Then once she was not as involved in the Jewish community as she was used to be, is when she realized that it is a big part of her life and wanted to do something for the Hillel. Now she is the Rabbi at the Hillel here at IU, which at one point she did not find to have a very strong sense of community. The next question I asked was about what kind of education/process she had to go through in order to become a Rabbi, if any. She told me that she came to IU and got an undergraduate degree in Social Work. Then she entered the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College in Philadelphia and studied there for six years. At the end of those six years she received a Master of Arts in Hebrew Letters and ordination as a Rabbi. I thought that it was amazing that she went to school here at IU for four years and studied Social Work and then went to school for another six years to become a Rabbi. I had no idea of the process that you had to take in order to become a Rabbi and I was actually shocked to here that it took so long. Rabbi Sue being a women and a Rabbi, I was curious to her opinion on the way that women were treated in the Jewish religion and if she thought it was harder to become a Rabbi since she was a women. She said that as a woman she does not feel as though it is harder to become a Rabbi. Throughout her life she has not really encountered that much resistance. Nowadays in the non-orthodox world, Rabbi Sue thinks that women are treated well in the Jewish community. In the orthodox world the view is that women and men have different roles and the woman’s role is not in the public sphere with regards to leading services etc. She disagrees but also respects the right of the orthodox world to disagree and interpret Judaism in their way. I totally agree with this statement. I know that I have been to services at reformed temples, conservative temples and orthodox temples and I can see that in each temple women play a different role and are treated differently. I have these family friends that are very Orthodox and this one lady, Becky is not allowed to leave the house without her wig on, a long skirt and a face full of makeup. I know that in the orthodox religion women and men have two very distinct roles and in the reform and conservative religion the roles of women and men are different. The reform movement is definitely the most equal for women and men. Now, I wanted to know if Rabbi Sue thought that the role of women in the Jewish religion had changed at all in the past, say, ten years. Rabbi Sue said that it definitely has. In the non-orthodox world there has been increasing acceptance and equality for women in the synagogue. After Rabbi Sue answering some of my questions, I realized that the role of women is very different now then it has been, mainly in the non-orthodox world. Women are totally accepted in the non-orthodox world of Judaism and that actually makes me very proud. I now feel better about being a woman in the Jewish Religion. I always thought of women in Judaism as the way Orthodox Jews view women and now I know that, that is not the only way women are viewed in the Jewish religion.
After doing some research on the role that women have in the Jewish religion, I came to find out that a lot have changed since the beginning of time. The Orthodox Jews still basically follow the tradition that puts women on a lower pedestal then men. The Conservative Jews have branched off a little bit by allowing more women to take part in services at the synagogues, if the synagogue allows it. And the Reform Jews have really spread apart and allow women to do everything and anything that the men are allowed to do. I think that Rabbi Sue was a great part of the paper and really gave some insight on a woman who is now a Rabbi, and a long time ago that would have never been allowed.

2006-12-05T11:41:00.000-08:00

Last night I was watching the show Hogan Knows Best and they just moved to Miami Florida and were throwing a party to meet all the neighbors. They knew that a lot of religious Jewish families lived on their street or in the area. They found out that they had to get Kosher food. The dad and son went to the grocery store, but couldn't find any kosher food and then man that worked there had no idea what kosher food was. Also, they had no idea what was ment by kosher food. Well, they finally found a place to get kosher food at, it was called something like Kosher World. They asked the guy that worked there what mae the food kosher? The guy said that it was the way the animal was killed. Kosher meat must be killed a certain way and experience no pain. They also check the meat after they kill it to make sure that it has no diseases or anything. They also found out that anything that grows from the ground (fruits, vegetables) are considered to be kosher. When the dad and son got home they told the mom and daughter that they got Kosher food and hat they think it is better for you and probably better meat. They told them everything that the man said at the store. Ok, now it was time for the party. During the party the daughter was introducing herself and she came to a Rabbi. She tried to shake his hand, but he refused. He told her hat he is only allowed to touh his wife, no other women. I found this really interesting because I never knew that. I think this must be an Orthodox things because I know in my temple which is conservative the Rabbi will shake a womens hand. Then the daughter sees another Rabbi and introduces herself but this time she knows not to put out her hand. This Rabbi kind of makes a joke and says this is how a Rabbi gives a hug and basically gives her an air hug withough touching, just putting his arms out. Not the Dad is cooking the food and a Rabbi goes over and says what do we have here. the dad says don't worry we got kosher food. The Rabbi says thats no good, you are cooking the kosher food with then non kosher food. The dad says oh man, so many rules, you learn something new all the time. Well, we have some catored food that is Kosher and the Rabbi says that is great. I found it interesting how much the Hogan family didn't know about Kosher food. It was amazing to see. But yet the learned so much about it by having this party.

2006-12-04T14:25:00.000-08:00

Today in class we were talking briefly about Jews celebrating Christmas. Not really celebrating Christmas but getting into the holiday season, maybe by watching Christmas movies or singing Christmas songs. Over thanksgiving I went to my aunt and uncles house and my uncle had made copies of my dad and his brothers home videos from when they were growing up. We were talking about my grandparents (who happened to have passed away before any of their grandchildren were born) and my cousins and I were curious about our fathers’ childhood. We really didn't know much. So when my family and I got home we started to watch the videos. On many of the videos we saw my dad and his family opening presents and there was a Christmas tree and everything in the picture. This really confused me, my brother and my mom because my dad was brought up Jewish and both of his parents were Jewish. My dad explained to us that they didn't really celebrate Christmas, like there was nothing religious about it. But, on Christmas he and his brothers got presents. They celebrated Hanukkah by lighting the candles and saying the prayers, but they only got money on Hanukkah. So, my dad said that Christmas they got presents and Hanukkah they got money. My dad said that he never thought of Christmas as a religious event. He always thought of himself to be Jewish. My mom and I found this very odd and we didn't really agree with it. We thought that if you’re Jewish you do not have a Christmas tree and decorate it and get presents on Christmas morning. We just didn't really get it. Although my father was brought up that way, I never did anything like that throughout my childhood. These days I think that it is ok to get in the holiday spirit but also remember what your background is and don't conform to what everyone else is doing. I've seen people put up lights outside their house during the holiday season that are little draddel lights. I find that kind of inappropriate. There is no need for Hanukkah to be like Christmas. The two holidays have totally different meanings and I don't think that there is a need to try and make them similar.

2006-12-03T12:38:00.000-08:00

I was talking to one of my old camp friends and she told me that she was taking a trip to Isreal. She said that it is a birthright that you have to get a free trip to Isreal. We didn't get into to much detail about it, but it made me think. Can any Jewish person go on this trip? I didn't really understand. As a birthright you must have to be born Jewish in order to take this free trip to Isreal. I was wondering if there was a certain age you had to be in order to go. Also, if you had to be bar or bat mitzvahed in order to go. I didn't really understand all the aspects of it. Then I was wondering if you converted to Judaism and was now a practicing Jew, were you allowed to take this trip. So I went online and tried to do some research. I found a website called Isreal Outdoors. If gave 3 different birthright trip options. They were Isreal Quest, Isreal by bike and Isreal by foot. I found that some trips are open to 18-22, some 22-26 and some are open to all ages. I don't know if the all ages actually means all ages or just 18-26. I am really interested in learning more about this. If anyone has ever done it or knows anything about it let me know.

2006-11-06T18:35:00.000-08:00

On the topic of being Jewish and picking a college to go to. I know when I was applying to colleges my mother had a book that told us about how many students at different schools were Jewish. This was very important to my mother. She wanted me to go to a school that had a decent amount of Jewish students. To me it did not matter that much, just because I was used to being one of the only Jewish people in my class. Throughout school there weren't many other Jewish students. The name of this book was The Hillel Guide to Jewish Life on Campus, a Princton Review book. It lists all the different colleges by state and it tells you the total enrollment of students, and then it tells you how many of them are Jewish students . Tells you about the Hillel on campus and the address of it. The book tells you who the rabbi is, if they have a jewish studies program and if it is offered as a major. It tells you if there is a transfer program in Isreal. It tells you all about th kosher food on campus and if there is special housing for students who keep kosher. I think that this book could be really helpful if the Jewish Life on a particular campus is important to you when looking for a school.

2006-10-31T14:30:00.000-08:00

After talking about different music in class and if it had anything to do with Judaism when it has some kind of tune or lyrics that relate to Judaism, I went home and started thinking about that. For example, Pink’s song, If I were a Rich Girl. That song doesn’t really offend me or anything, but I do think that it takes the religious “soul” of the tune. Usually when I think of Fiddler on the Roof I think of a serious, cultural experience, and Pink’s song just takes away from that. When artists use religious tunes I don’t think that it should be considered Jewish music or anything, but I do think that if you are Jewish you will always relate it to the original song. Also, I think when artists use a Jewish tune the only people that would even relate it to the Jewish lifestyle is someone that follows it. So, personally I don’t think that it is offensive or anything but I think that it just takes away from the background on what the tune or song really means.

2006-10-31T12:09:00.000-08:00

Matisyahu, Youth

The song that Matisyahu sings named Youth seems to basically summarize the way youth feels. He describes youth in many different ways and his lyrics make it seem as though any person can really fit into it. Anyone can relate to something that he is saying. Like when he says “some of them trust their instincts that something's missing from the show some don't fit society, insides are crying low”… etc. In his lyrics there is not any kind of direct correlation to Judaism. I think that anyone, no matter what your religion would feel comfortable listening to this song and can relate to it. It doesn’t seem like he is trying to target a specific religion, but really he is trying to target a specific generation. I’m not sure if I should take this literally or not, but in his chorus he says.. “young man, control in your hand slam your fist on the table and make your demand take a stand”..etc. I’m not sure if he is trying to just talk to young men or if he is just using the term man as a general term and he is talking to all young people. If he is talking to just young men then it seems as though he thinks that men should be in charge and always stand up for themselves. I am not saying that he things badly of women or anything, but it definitely seems as though he puts men up there on the list of power.

2006-09-24T19:14:00.000-07:00

When I was looking at the website chabad.org I clicked on the link “Judaism 101”. Under the “Daily Life and Practice” tab it had a lot of different “How To’s”. I found this very interesting. It basically gave a definition to different practices that Jews do, like, Shabbat, kosher, tefillin, mezuzah, etc. I enjoyed reading these because even me being a jew understand these practices better because they put it in a way that made it very easy to understand. There was a quote that I found on the website that said “Everything in this world was created for a divine purpose. All forms of modern technology can and should be harnessed to make the world a better place and, in the case of Jews, to spread Judaism in the widest possible manner”-The New York Times. I was just wondering why The New York Times would single out the Jews in this case. I was kind of curious to know in what context this quote was being used in, because it doesn’t really make sense to me why “Jews” would be in it. This website offers so much; there is not really a good place to begin. There is a whole section just for women, with motherhood, pregnancy and birth, etc. I really feel as though this website caters to almost anyone. Even if you are not religious or even Jews, this website has a lot of good life lessons almost.

2006-09-17T12:46:00.000-07:00

www.aleph.org
I think that this website is looking at Judaism differently then we typically would. It looks at Judaism in a spiritual way. It seems to me that this website is trying to join Jewish people in a community that has specific roles of leadership and tries to help people. This website might be a good support system for some Jewish people that are into the spiritual life and the world around them, in all aspects.
www.culturaljudaism.org
Cultural Jews are Jews that are Jewish but not really religious. This website gives these people a place to come together so, you don’t think that you are alone. This website gives you a chance to learn about the Jewish history and life through different programs. I like how they have different current issues that you can read and since they are current they might actually relate to your life now and they are not from thousands of years ago.
www.americansephardifederation.org
A Sephardic Jew is a Jew originating in Spain and Portugal. I think that this website is a place for the Sephardic Jews to come together and read of on different current issues. There are also different places on this website to get information, scholarships, etc. This website is also trying to educate anyone who wants to be educated on Sephardic Judaism.
www.huc.edu
This website is the Hebrew Union College. This website looks similar to any other school website you would go to. They have everything you would need to get started at the school, how to apply etc. They have the different requirements that are needed in order to apply to the school. At this school they obviously have more classes on Judaism then most colleges would. There are not that many classes offered at a time. I found that there are three campuses for the Hebrew Union College, Cincinnati, New York and Los Angeles. I think that it would be interesting to see what a college class is like at the Hebrew Union College and I am also curious how many (if any) none Jews go to the college.

2006-09-11T17:00:00.000-07:00

The other day I was in my race and the media class. We were talking about different identities and ethnicities. For example if you are Asian but born in America then you would be considered Asian American or Italian American etc. But, if you were born in another country like Asia then you would just be Asian. Then my teacher said Jewish American. So is Jewish an ethnicity? I didn’t really understand that because I consider Jewish as my religion not ethnicity. If someone asked me my ethnicity I would say American not Jewish American, but if someone asked my religion I would tell them I was Jewish. Well, someone in my class asked my teacher why she kept saying Jewish American. My teacher replied with in the Jewish religion it is more than just a religion there is culture behind it which makes it ok to say that you are a Jewish American. So not I started thinking about different religions and began to understand why it made sense to be classified as a Jewish American. Jews are a group of people that have stuff like special foods as does Italians or Asians. Basically Jewish is so much more than a religion that I believe it can be considered an ethnicity or culture. Then I was also thinking what if you are Asian and Jewish, or Spanish and Jewish, do you take it as far as saying I am an Asian Jewish American, or are you just an Asian American or a Jewish American? I just feel as though I am not really sure how to classify this kind of thing. So, my question is to everyone else, what are you opinions on it?

2006-09-10T12:08:00.000-07:00

Conservative Judaism

Conservative Judaism is in between Reform Judaism and Orthodox Judaism. It accepts the reform emphasis on critical scholarship, but wants to maintain a stricter observance of Jewish law, for example the dietary laws.
Conservative Judaism insists on keeping some requirements of the Jewish law like circumcision of male infants and eating matzo on Passover. Conservative Judaism allows Jews to do things like use electrical appliances on the Sabbath and drive to synagogue. Also they can have a women Rabbi, which only came about in 1985.

I found these seven core values of Conservative Judaism and thought that they were pretty interesting.

1. The centrality of modern Israel
Israel is the birthplace of Jewish People and also its final destiny.
2. Hebrew: The Irreplaceable language of Jewish Expression
The many layers of the language mirror the cultures in which Jews perpetuated Judaism.
3. Devotion to the ideal of Klal Yisrael
All Israel is still joined in fellowship
4. The defining role of Torah in the reshaping of Judaism
Chanting the Torah each Shabbat is the centerpiece of the conservative service.
5. The study of Torah
What Conservative Judaism brings to this unfinished dialectic are the tools and perspectives of modern scholarship blended with traditional learning and empathy.
6. The governance of Jewish life by Halakha
Expresses the fundamental thrust of Judaism to concretize ethics of theology into daily practice.
7. Belief in God
It is this value which plants the religious nationalism and national religion that are inseparable from Judaism in the universal soil of monotheism.