ANDREA'S F358 BLOG

Jewish Greek Organizations

2006-12-06T15:30:00.000-08:00

hiiiiiii if anyone wants to answer these questions that would be great! it is for my paper that i am doing on jewish greek organizations on campus!

1. What made you decide to do a Jewish house?
2. Tell me your thoughts on why there are sororities that are separate for Jews within the Greek system.
3. How has being part of Jewish house has enhanced your Jewish identity?

thanks!

American Jewish History

2006-12-06T14:41:00.000-08:00

I found today’s discussion to be very interesting about Sarna’s book on American Jewish history and the other topics that were chosen to be included in this discussion to warp the course up. I think that this was a great class and such a variety of topics were covered and I feel as though I learned a great deal about topics that I would like to look into further (because we were only able to cover so much in each class period). Sarna looks at the 350 years of history of Jewish life in the United States which starts in 1654 to present day. I think that this would be a very interesting book to read, aside from the segment of it we were assigned to read in class. In his book he looks at religious patterns that have existed in the past in Europe and the Caribbean and how it all moved to the U.S. and the events that have transformed Jewish religious life and shaped Jewish history in the US. The American Jewish experience is interesting to me just as the expulsion of the Jews from Spain and events that took place during WW2 and the Holocaust. I think it is all very interesting to see how groups of Jews have moved over the years and how events that have occurred have shaped communities, traditions, and cultures. Judaism is just a very fascinating religion and I am lucky I was able to learn more about it in my collage curriculum, opposed to when I was young and uninterested in Sunday school. I think that this course was great and am also looking forward to a class that I am taking next semester H252 with Veidlinger about Jewish history from the Spanish expulsion to present day. I think that this course will be very interesting and hope to take from it as I have this class.

Radio Hanukkah

2006-12-05T20:07:00.000-08:00

I find it so exciting that XM Satellite Radio has announced that it is going to dedicate a channel to Jewish music and culture for the Hanukkah Season, with all of the Christmas music that is played over and over again, it is about time that something like this has come available! All of the artists that will be played sound great, and it will also be an opportunity to hear new Jewish artists. Also, Jewish comedy, talk, and blessings over the candles, in addition to kids programming will undoubtedly make this programming a success (at least among the Jewish population). And the fact that you can listen to it for free for the 8 days of Hanukkah makes this even more attractive!! With numerous stations available on local radio stations dedicated to Christmas music and so many more with non-stop Christmas music on XM such as: Holiday Traditions, Holly XM, Music City Holiday, Classical Christmas, Special Xmas, it is about time that there is something available for us Jews that already face this extreme Christmas season which lacks much aside from a menorah next to a huge Christmas tree that can be seen in offices and department store displays. When I was younger I was always jealous of the families that had their houses decorated in lots of gaudy Christmas lights and wanted to take part in that, but now, it is all just so over the top and annoying. I am glad that during this time I can look forward to listening to some good music and funny shows on XM’s Radio Hanukkah!

Christmas time

2006-12-05T20:05:00.000-08:00

This morning I had an appointment with a doctor at home. The minute I walked in I stared at a big Christmas tree and then saw that they had all sorts of Christmas time gift sets (this was a dermatologist’s office, so skin care sorts of things) along with a list of the Christmas prices. This bothered me a bit that these were not just holiday gift ideas, but what can you do, people just do not really put too much thought into who they may be offending. Also, when my doctor came in, we were talking about school and she asked me if I was in a sorority because she had a relative that goes to school here and knew that rush had started this weekend. I told her I was in Alpha Epsilon Phi and she had never heard of it and she asked me if it was known for anything, like how some sororities have certain stereotypes, and I told her no not really, just a diverse group of people, but it is a nationally Jewish sorority. This was very interesting to her because she said she was from a small town in Indiana and had really never met anyone Jewish. She started to ask me all sorts of questions, like if there is a church for me to go to here and if a holiday she had heard of before, Rosh Hashanah was coming up (surprisingly she knew it was the Jewish new year, but assumed it coincided with the new year, like January 1st). I set her straight on a few things, explained what Hanukkah was like, that Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur are the most important holidays and were in the fall, and that I go to temple and there is one in Bloomington, but Hillel is most widely used by students (then had to explain what that was). It is so hard to imagine not growing up around anyone Jewish or in a town that is nearly 100% catholic or Christian (which I assume she did). Diversity is so great and learning and knowing about other religions and cultures is something that I value and am glad that I chose to incorporate some of that into my education here at IU.

Christmas Movies

2006-11-30T19:43:00.000-08:00

I don’t really like what I am seeing in these movies that are related to Christmas and Jesus that are beyond the Home Alone type theme or The Santa Clause. I did go to see Passion of the Christ last year because I thought it would be good to see it to get an educational grasp on the Christian perspective of what exactly occurred. The whole time I was watching it, I was confused and not really that interested and after I walked out when it was over, I was not mad I saw it, but I was also not glad I saw it and did not feel as though I had a through understanding of what happened in those times. But now with this movie Nativity coming out and others which I’m sure will follow, I don’t know if our main neighborhood movie theatres are the appropriate place to play these movies, maybe smaller arts theatres or churches would be more appropriate? I know it is holiday time and they are being released in the holiday spirit, but it is a bit much is how I feel, it is the fact that they are actually putting Christ in to the Christmas movies that is just a bit much for the mainstream movie theatre is what I think.

Jewish Genetic Diseases

2006-11-30T19:30:00.000-08:00

It is very scary to me that there are genetic diseases associated with members of the Jewish population, especially the Ashkenazi Jewish individuals with eastern European blood than in other populations. Some of the most common are recessive genetic diseases such as Niemann-Pick, Canavan, Gaucher, and Tay-Sachs. These diseases are very deadly and in my genetics class I took last semester, we had to chose a genetic disease to look at and I picked Tay-Sachs, this is such a sad disease because it manifests itself in children and along with the other diseases, those who are inflicted with these usually do not reach age 5. This is so strange to me that a genetic mutation can be found so heavily within a group of people and that it can become a part of ones Jewish identity. Tay-Sachs is the most widely known and it attacks the nervous system and is found to be ten times more likely to be found in members of the Ashkenazi Jewish population than in others. This is so shocking to me. I think that for all Jews, it is of high importance to get tested, these diseases are genetic and recessive, therefore, you may not know that you are a carrier or if your partner is and what your chances are of having a child that is inflicted with one of these highly deadly and debilitating diseases. It would be very sad to find that you are a carrier but maybe not as sad as giving birth to a child that dies a year later, maybe adoption would be a better option? That is just my opinion personally because I would hate to see any baby or child suffer. This is very sad, but is something else that we as members of the Jewish population are faced with.

Holiday Armadillo

2006-11-29T19:31:00.000-08:00

hahahah i was just watching Friends and the episode came on where Ross dresses up as the "holiday armadillo" to teach his son, Ben, about the importance of Hanukkah (because he is part Jewish) and is staying with Ross over the holidays. Ben is totally uninterested in Hanukkah at first and is much more interested in Christmas and feels as though he has done something bad because Ross wants him to celebrate Hanukkah this year and tells him that Santa will not be coming this year, Ben is so upset about this. So, Ross tries to find a Santa Claus suit but they are out of them in all the costume stores so instead he dresses up as the “Holiday Armadillo” and it comes up that the Armadillo is part Jewish to:

Ben: Wow! Thanks!
Ross: You're welcome, Ben. Merry Christmas, ooh, and Happy Hanukkah!
Ben: Are you for Hanukkah, too? Because I'm part-Jewish.
Ross: (gasps) You are? Me, too!
Monica: Because Armadillos also wandered in the desert?
Ross: (to Monica) You wanna wander in the hall? (to Ben) Ooh, hey Ben, what if the Holiday Armadillo told you all about the festival of lights?
Ben: Cool!
Ross: Yeah!

this is one of my favorite episodes but seeing it after being in this class, it reminds me of how it is becoming of lesser importance to many when raising a child in a interfaith marriage, Ben was very uninterested in Hanukkah and during this time of year, many conflictive feelings are felt in young jewish kids around the country when faced with this "december dilemma", the Holiday Armadillo episode is a great example of this!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=83u9HOvHxwQ

Messianic Judaism

2006-11-28T18:11:00.000-08:00

Monday's discussion about Messianic Judaism was very interesting and confusing. I never really have learned much about this group of Jews that believe that Jesus or Yeshua is the “Jewish Messiah and Savior of the world.” I never really acknowledged that there was a group that thought such things that existed within the Jewish religion, I always thought it was crazy when my non-Jewish friends would ask me if I believed that Jesus was the son of g-d… I never thought of this as part of my religion. So, messianic Jews are committed as Jews and committed to the Jewish religion, yet believe that Jesus is the Messiah of Israel and is a savior? This is all so confusing to me. I do not really understand where these teachings come from and how it is part of the Jewish religion. I find it all very interesting, but confusing too, it seems as though Christians are Christians and believe in Jesus, Jews are Jewish and follow Jewish laws and traditions and do not believe in Jesus, but in this case…it all becomes highly contradictive. And although these Messianic Jews retain a Jewish identity and culture and history, they still believe in Jesus? I just do not understand how this works in the temple and among other Jews and among other Christians, it does make sense that they face some sort of double persecution this movement seems so strange to me.

Intermarriage and Jews

2006-11-14T18:45:00.000-08:00

After googling Intermarriage and Jewish, a number of webpages popped up. The first that popped up was one that I thought to be highly important. It was a page on Intermarrige and Jewish Identity. This page had a series of questions that had been asked, the first was Do you think it's wrong for a Jew to marry a non-Jew? Why or why not? It then went on to tell us about the high rate of intermarriage and shcokingly, more than 50% of the Jews in the United States in the past decade who got married, married out of their faith. Also, 700,000 Jewish kids are being raised in other religons. This is horrible, these statistics need to change, but for some, it is viewed as a "natural outcome of living in a multicultural society". Another website highlights that we are losing nearly 100 Jews each day to intermarriage and assimilation. This in no way can be good for the Jewish community as a whole. Is this really what is referred to as the "silent holocaust"? This is a serious issue and needs to be addressed. I do not think that people realize what is being done when they chose to marry a non-Jew or to raise their children another religion. I remeber when I was younger, I never dated anyone that was Jewish and my parents hated that. I always said that when I get married, I do not care what religion they are, it will just be a matter of loving someone. But, now as I am older, I realize the importance of marrying Jewish and having Jewish children to continue our traditions and allow our religion to flourish and grow, not to diminish and dissappear.

Black Jews

2006-11-12T07:30:00.000-08:00

I thought the video we watched in class was very interesting. I had no idea that there was such a strong group of Black Jews that was in existence. Black Jews may refer to Jews who are Black weather by religious practice, conversion, or ethnic identification. Sometimes Black Jews is a term that is used to refer to the Beta Israel which is the ancient black Jewish community of Ethiopia. Black Jews could refer to those who do not consider Semitic Jews to be true Jews and simply claim to be the true descendants of the Israelites of the Torah. They are connected sometimes with the more mainstream Jewish community, but are not really considered to be members of it because they have not converted and do not have Jewish parents. But, the Black Hebrews represent a group that was granted permanent resident status in Israel, therefore they are viewed in a different light. Black Jews may also refer to various African American religious movements that begun in the 1800s. To many of these groups, their claims to a Jewish identity served as a way to reject Christianity which was seen as a very white religion. These people typically do nto practice what we consider to be mainstream Judaism, but instead a religion which incorporates elements of different religious traditions as we saw in the video of the Jews in Harlem. This is all very new and different and interesting to me. I had never realized that these movements existed in the Black Jewish community or that one had really existed at all.

Borat

2006-11-07T19:44:00.000-08:00

I went to go see Borat on Saturday and LOVED the movie! I had never really seen Ali G. but saw the previews for Borat and thought it looked so funny and really wanted to go see it. Although some parts may be offensive to Jews, it kind of goes back to when we discussed the Hebrew Hammer. It may be offensive to Jews, but it is a Jew that is potraying this part and so I did not really find myself offended in parts, more shocked, but then laughing at the same time! Borat has been the cause of much controversy though. His frequent anti-semetic humor and racist potrayl of Kazakhs has been brought up by the Anti-Defamation League, which is a U.S. based pro-Jewish group. They complained to HBO even though Sasha Baron Cohen is a Jew himself. This all reminds me of our discussion about how far is too far with this sort of Jewish humor. All in all i thought this movie was great and I think it was the hardest I had laughed in a long time. While some parts may have been offensive, you just have to take it for what it is and this type of humor clearly is not going to appeal to everyone.
http://www.apple.com/trailers/fox/borat/trailer/

GLBT Jews

2006-10-31T18:05:00.000-08:00

After watching the segment in class about how orthodoxy deals with queer Jews, I felt so badly for this part of the Jewish population. It was almost as the guy talking to the Rebbe had to deal with this "disorder" or was almost going to face exile from the religion, it was his life choice and he is homosexual, it is not a curable illness. It is sad that this is how it is looked at in orthodoxy. It is nice to know though that Reform and Reconstructionists look at it from a different angle, there is a life that is able to be lived openly for those who chose to live as Queer Jews. They should not be shunned and face this sort of exile. It is especially sad because as Jews and part of the Jewish community, we need to stick together and be accepting of others. It is not fair that because someone may be homosexual, they should feel badly or as an outcast in the Jewish religion. They should feel welcomed no matter what and not feel as though they are being judged or frowned upon by the rest of the community or congregation.

Jewish Theater

2006-10-22T18:36:00.000-07:00

I really enjoyed the part of the Hebrew Hammer that we got to watch! I will defiantly be on the look out for that on comedy central or rent it soon! I did not really get the whole Hebrew Mamaita piece; Vanessa Hidary seems very angry and lost in her identity and through her expressive poetry seems just mad at the world that she is part of. I wonder what her following is like. After listening to part of Caroline, or Change, I was reminded of a play that my mom and I went to see when I was younger called The Last Night of Balyhoo. This was a great play that looked at the lives of Jews in the south and the life and struggle that came with living in an overwhelmingly Christian society. Although the family lived on one of Atlanta’s finest streets in a large home, belonged to an elite country club, and were quite wealthy, they still faced prejudice as a result of being Jews in the south. They still become part of the mainstream southern society yet face much discrimination. It explored much of this anti-Semitism and was related to examination of one’s Jewish identity and "degree of Jewishness", but all in all it was very funny and a great show and piece of Jewish theatre that I would recommend!

Matisyahu

2006-10-07T19:34:00.000-07:00

I downloaded some of the Matisyahu songs from Youth. My younger brother is really in to his music, but I never had really listened to it before except for the song that we listened to in class. I really like his music though and I like the style and how he blends religion with his reggae, rap, and rock style of music. Through this, it is possible for him to attract fans from many different religions and ethnicities. He uses a lot of beat boxing in his music and his songs are mostly in English with a little bit of Hebrew and Yiddish in the music. I feel like he would be a fun person to see life and would put on a great show. I really enjoyed listening to all of the songs on the Youth CD. I think that most of the songs were pretty similar but my favorite one was probably What I’m Fighting For. It sounds a lot like Bob Marley and had good lyrics that tied the future to the past and thought it was a good song. I also really enjoyed Fire Of Heaven / Altar Of Earth, it was a little more upbeat while What I'm Fighting For seemed to have a bit of a different tone, but I really enjoyed listening to Matisyahu.

Lotus Fest

2006-10-07T19:26:00.000-07:00

Today I tried to go to the lotus fest with some of my friends, but there was really nothing going on during the day! We walked allllll around the kirkwood area and saw the stages that were set up and it was such a nice day and were really looking foward to hearing some music! Unfortunately nothing was going on there, but we ended up at this park between lincoln and washington near 2nd street and there was a group singing there and a lot of hippies all around and people dancing to the music. there was also a group of drummers playing which was fun to listen to, it was a fun day all in all, but it would have been better if I would have gotten to hear some of the other bands that we talked about in class but didn't have a chance to go back later!

Chabad

2006-09-24T21:44:00.000-07:00

I remember going to Israel a few years ago and I was on the plane out of New York. I remember being surrounded by Hasidic men, all dressed in their black suits and peases and long beards. They were making me so nervous on the flight as the continued to go to the back of the plane and pray nearly every hour. These are my immediate thoughts of the Chabad movement. After returning from Israel I wanted to learn what they were all about so researched their movement a bit. It is interesting, just different, it is something I will most likely never understand 100%.

Chabad Lubavich is one of the largest branches of Hasidic Judaism and represents one of the largest Jewish Orthodox movements worldwide. It is an acronym for the Hebrew words Chochma, Binah, and Da’at which translate to Wisdom, Understanding and Knowledge. That was my basic understanding, that the Hasidic people were basically scholars who dedicated themselves to living their lives by the word of the Old Testament.

The Rebbe plays a huge part in the lives of the Hasidic people. It is strange to me that they look to him as the messiah. As Jewish people, I did not think that we believed in a messiah. It is a weird idea and that it is tied to acts of kindness and mitzvot. I think that the Jewish people can perform these acts without believing that a messiah will save the world or whatever they believe he is to come and do. I do think that it is nice that the Hasidic people assist Jews with religious needs and strive to provide physical assistance and spiritual guidance and teaching, but it does not seem fitting to our religion to believe in a messiah and that these acts of mitzvoth will help to bring the messiah. This is something that I have a hard time following yet I find it interesting to learn about and would like to visit the Chabad house on campus to experience Chabad first handedly.

Sephardic Judiasm

2006-09-19T20:15:00.000-07:00

When I think of Sephardic Jews, I think of the darker ones, the ones with a ethnic traditions, the different ones. It is really interesting to me that they are so different from the Ashkenazi Jews; I think the history is very interesting in how they came to be so different from one another in a religion that is such a minority. They adopted many traditions and were influenced greatly in many aspects by the areas in which they came from, especially in their language and in their food and cooking.

Ashkenazi Jews are from France, Germany, and Eastern Europe. Sephardic Jews are the Jews of Spain, Portugal, North Africa and the Middle East. Many American Jews today are Ashkenazi, although it is interesting that most of the early Jewish settlers in this country were Sephardic and that the first congregation in North America was Shearith Israel which was founded in 1684 in New York and was Sephardic. For the most part, Sephardic Jews follow orthodox laws, but have some of their own traditions and customs that are not part of Ashkenazi orthodoxy.

I have a friend whose dad is Moroccan and she came home with me for Rosh Hashanah last year and was so surprised about the food we ate, she had never eaten any of it before, but all of these foods were things I typically considered to be normal Jewish foods, I never realized that her customs and traditions were so different. I find all of this to be very interesting and would love to learn more about the differences in these two cultures that lie within this minority religion.

Cultural Judiasm

2006-09-17T08:45:00.000-07:00

Cultural Judaism seems as though it is part of Judaism as it is known, it is just an element of it though. It does not wholly constitute the religion as it does in “Cultural Judaism”. For me, the culture is what makes being Jewish fun and different. The customs and traditions have played such a huge role in my life and will in the future. I do not really understand how a person could be Jewish with out the cultural aspects being tied to the religious aspects as well, it just doesn’t make sense.

According to www.culturaljudaism.org, people who are part of this movement are passionate about their Jewish identity but find it difficult to “express it in ways that are consistent with their beliefs”. This movement is growing and many Jews around the world are beginning to identify themselves with this group as being cultural, non-religious Jews. The Cultural Jews look at Judaism as the “history, culture, civilization, ethical values and shared experiences of the Jewish people.” They are more connected to the language, literature, art, dance, music, food and celebrations of the Jewish people, not by the religious beliefs.

I feel that Judaism is a culture and a religion. These two elements seem inseparable. I don’t really think that the religion would exist with out the cultural elements and I believe that the cultural elements are closely knit to the religion. People can call themselves cultural Jews or can call themselves religious Jews. A person may attend services on the high holy days and think of themselves as a religious Jews, but never wear a kippah or keep kosher. On the other hand, someone may perform a mitzvah and keep kosher, but never attend temple, and consider themselves cultural Jews because those are cultural elements of the religion. It seems that as a whole, these elements are very difficult to separate and it is pretty much impossible to look at the cultural elements with out the religious ones and vice-a-versa.

Orthodoxy in America

2006-09-10T17:53:00.000-07:00

It seems as though the orthodox look at other sects of American Judaism as being lesser forms of the religion and as though they are sort of a let down to Judaism as a whole, especially the reform movement. In the article by Sarna, he states that "non-Orthodox Jews, with their high rate of intermarriage, will have no Jewish grandchildren and no Jewish future." He then points out that orthodoxy has trouble retaining its members and that the orthodox movement loses more members over time than any of the other Jewish religious movement. These two statements make the future of American Judaism as a whole look quite dim, especially with the fact that just about 10 percent of American Jews are currently orthodox. Orthodox people practice a more uniform set of rituals and are much stricter in their practices. It seems like it would be difficult to change from being reform or conservative and become part of this movement and that there is certainly another way to go about preserving Jewish culture and heritage among American non-orthodox Jews.

I found that the website www.ou.org was very difficult to get any information from. It was almost as if it was only for members of the orthodox movement and not to serve as a place for those to look for information and FAQ’s about orthodoxy. It seems as though that is the mentality among the members as well, and that non-orthodox are not really Jew’s and that reform Jew’s are almost a disgrace to the religion. It is sad that there are these extreme levels that exist within a minority religion and seems as though there will always be a barrier that lies between these extremes within.

Conservative VS Reform

2006-09-06T20:58:00.000-07:00

Conservative Judaism is different than reform, is different from orthodoxy. It serves as a middle ground for those who chose to sit between the two extremes. As I have grown up, I have begun to enjoy attending the conservative services and have never felt as though I was unwelcome at a conservative synagogue when attending with my extended family. The articles and class discussion brought up these standards for being an “Ideal Conservative Jew”. I know this was written by one man, but is certainly not his view alone. It is problematic that the conservative movement is almost driving people away from Conservative Judaism with these standards and almost requirements to be part of the movement.

The Conservative movement’s roots are the school of thought known as Positive-Historical Judaism which was developed in the 1850s Germany as a reaction to the more “liberal religious” positions taken by Reform Jews. The term “conservative” was meant to show that the Jewish people should conserve Jewish tradition and not “reform” it or abandon it. Both movements were developed in Europe and the United States in the 1800’s.

It seems as though the core values of Reform and Conservative are very similar, yet the way that they are carried out in daily living are may differ. If you simply google conservative Judaism, you can find that its core values are Israel, Hebrew, Klal Yisrael, Study of Torah, Halacha, and G-d. If you were to google reform Judaism, you would find that its core values are very similar to those of the conservatives: G-d, Torah, and Israel are greatly emphasized, while the others are not ignored. These two movements are very similar in their beliefs yet are very different when looked at from different perspectives, especially from leaders within each of the movements.

Reform Judiasm

2006-09-03T19:46:00.000-07:00

After exploring the www.rj.org website, I began to think more deeply about Reform Judaism. I learned much about this movement that I grew up as a part of and had no idea that it was the largest movement in North America. The website explains that Reform Judaism enables innovation and preserves tradition and is committed to inclusion welcoming all those who chose to be Jews by choice, as well as interfaith families. It was also the first group to ordain women rabbis, women cantors, and allow women to be presidents of their synagogues as well as allowing full participation of gays and lesbians in the temple.
Much of this I did not realize because most families that I know that attend my synagogue are 100% Jewish and take life inside the synagogue seriously through attendance at services, sending children to Sunday school, making sure their children are confirmed and have bar/bat mitzvahs. The RJ website sort of makes Reform Judaism seem as though it is a much less serious sect of the religion because it is evolving and less traditional.
Looking back, I never enjoyed Sunday school or going to temple when I was younger and now realize I sort of “got off easy” by being part of the reform movement. Now, I attend a conservative synagogue with family or go to the conservative service if I attend Hillel and enjoy the Hebrew services much more than those at my Reform synagogue that are mostly responsive reading in English and it has become apparent that the Reform movement is much different in many ways.

2006-08-29T20:18:00.000-07:00

Just a test post