Jewish Local Culture Essay

The most important celebration that takes place on the Friday of the Sabbath is the Shabbat dinner. This takes place at home with family and friends. The Shabbat table is laid with two loaves, known as "hallot" which, like the candles, represent the dual Shabbat commandments to keep and remember Sabbath, and cups, over which Kiddush is recited. The father blesses the children in order of age, before Kiddush is recited over the wine, which "gladdens the heart" (Psalm 104:15).

For my ethnographic fieldwork, I decided to do my research on the Jewish culture. I interviewed a friend of mine at her house, which is the field site I decided to work in. To protect her identity I changed her name to Rebecca. As soon as I got to her house I notice there was a small piece of metal on the side of her doorpost with hebrew text written on it. I enter the house and she greeted me and took me to her living room.In her living room I noticed she had a tray of bite size cookies for us and a Snapple drink. The cookies were sweet and they did not have strong odor. My friend wore black slacks a white blouse and a star necklace around her neck. After a while, her brother and father came in and I noticed they had a little cap on the top of their heads. I asked her questions about her religion and culture.

Since the beginning of the Judaism, the Jewish people have been subject to hardships and discrimination. They have not been allowed to have a stabile place of worship and have also faced persecution and atrocities that most of us can not even imagine. Three events that have had a big impact on the Jewish faith were the building and destruction of the First Great Temple, the Second Great Temple and the events of the Holocaust. In this paper, I will discuss these three events and also explain and give examples as to why I feel that the Jewish people have always been discriminated against and not allowed the freedom of worship.

According to the broadest definition, there are approximately 9 million Jewish adults in America. Of those, 5.3 million are Jewish because they practice the Jewish religion or who have a Jewish parent and consider themselves Jewish. Non-hispanic blacks make up 2% of that population. (A Portrait of Jewish Americans) Blacks constitute such a small percentage of the Jewish population that they are often considered to be obviously “not Jewish”. This was the experience of Rabbi Shlomo ben Levy.In an article entitled, “Who are we? Where did we come from? How many of us are there?”, Rabbi Levy describes his feelings of marginalization triggered by an advertisement for Levy’s Jewish Rye. The advertisement features a black boy eating a sandwich and

The National Council of Jewish Women has a wide history from the 1890s all the way through 2010. In 1893, Hannah G. Solomon of Chicago was asked to organize the participation of Jewish women in the Chicago World’s Fair. Hannah and her recruits discovered that they would pouring coffee and doing other hostess duties, they decided to walk out and take matters into their own hands. At the end of the World Fair, Hannah and the accompanying delegate body of women founded the National Council of Jewish Women, changing the roles of Jewish Women and the nature of volunteerism.

Throughout the history of the world, the Jewish people have been persecuted and oppressed because of their religious beliefs and faith. Many groups of people have made Jews their scapegoat. Jews have suffered from years of intolerance because people have not understood what the religion really means. They do not understand where and why the religion began, nor the customs of it's people. For one to understand the great hardships, triumphs, and history of the Jewish people one must open-mindedly peruse a greater knowledge of the Jewish people and faith.

The Lower East Side was a cornucopia of Jews from various parts of the world.

Jewish history is a study of a people in exile. Since the destruction of the Temple of Jerusalem, the experience of the Jewish individual in relation to non-Jewish society has often been that of an outsider looking in. In addition, the distinct Jewish culture, religion, and philosophy identifiably marked the Jews as a separate people. Although this demarcation exposed the Jews to many negative ideological trends, Isaac Deutscher’s “The Non-Jewish Jew” argues that this marginalization enabled the great thinkers of the 19th and 20th centuries to revolutionize the European continent. As the title suggests, the non-Jewish Jews were individuals that abandoned Judaism. Deutscher argues that the historical exclusion

I was shocked when I read that some Jews have entirely separate sets of dishes, forks, knives, and even in some instances, different dishwashers! The purpose of this, “Abba” says, is “to make Jews feel distinctive and special” (21). He says it is hard to keep kosher sometimes because restaurants are limited and it is an extremely disciplined lifestyle. He explains it by comparing the lifestyle to that of a person who is vegan. He goes on to say “It establishes a relationship between you, your family, and the traditions of the Jewish people” (21-22). I found it unbelievable how passionate Jewish people could be in maintaining a certain meal plan for their whole lives! Even more so there is an important key part of life that focuses on family. For Jews, they consider all Jews as a people one big family. They trace themselves all the way back in the Bible to the time of Abraham and Sarah. There is a known idea that Jews are the “chosen people” and this idea alone has caused conflict amongst all religions. Jewish people alone tend to consider this idea as ridiculous, and others look at it as a confidence boost that got them through the hard times as a

In many ways current American cultural beliefs and norms related to gatherings and traditions are similar to those of non-industrialized societies. Examples of family gatherings that we in our American society share include; Thanksgiving, Super bowl parties, and Christmas dinner. Christmas dinner however is based on religious beliefs so we will leave it out of this discussion for the purpose of in composing all American citizens in the discussion.

Experienced Jewish immigrants seem to have a mocking nostalgia of “the old country”. They are Americans and strive to get away from any “greenish” behavior or associations, so they behave as if they never shared the experiences of new immigrants. We can see this in the second half of the first scene where fresh off the boat Navasky, whose purpose was to highlight the difference between a newcomer and an assimilated Jew. They mock his smell and journey, play with his hat, and then cackle as they coo over his conservatism and prayer before he drank. Experienced immigrants have built new lives and believe that they have no need of old country values or custom, even so much as to hate them, while newer immigrants cling to them not only because it is something familiar, but also because it is their culture. They believe that they should not have to sacrifice their beliefs just because it is the way of

Kabbalat Shabbat is Friday night services the start of Shabbat. Shabbat is a Jewish holiday that happens every Friday night through Saturday until sundown. The final Kabbalat Shabbat as a camper for me was the most meaningful. My age group had our chance to perform each dance from our past summers. Each summer the age group has to learn and perform a dance on a Friday night. On the final Friday night my age group performed all of our dances that we learn over the pass summers. I had the feeling of the complete devastation since it was the final day of camp. Another, meaningful part of Shabbat is when we have tish. Tish is when campers will chant songs in Hebrew it is when everyone shows their happiness that Shabbat has arrived. The final Tish that I was a part of I had the opportunity to hand down a song that I lead throughout the summer to a camper who is a year younger than

though most of them had not passed through the horrible years. In the description, it says that the Jew is a Female attorney who appreciates her culture. She also says that she is offended by people who treat her differently because of her heritage. Another person is a lesbian. My first impression is that they are brave because they had the courage to come out to her parents. I also think of how they might of been picked on because of her sexual preference. In the description, she says that she is the mother of two and she also hates when people tell her not to have custody of both of her children. When i think of working class, I think of them not having enough money to give to their families, I also think of the person getting paid minimum wage. The description says that he is a father of two kids and does not make

During my Shabbat experience I realized the importance of family, I also thought of my brother repeatedly throughout the night and have come to resolve that because of their weekly Shabbat observance, Jewish people have a very close relationship with their loved ones. In entirety the practice helped me realize that relaxation is a key stress reliever and helps to unwind. I believe the experience really brought my family closer. My dad suggested we try to sit down together for dinner at least once a week. I am very thankful for this experience and will strive to share more moments of quality family

One day in class with the professor Joseph Hoolbrok, I was thinking about which essay would be easier to do, but then I thought about how interesting would be to know about other religions, costumes and different traditions. One friend of mine works in events in a Jewish temple and I asked him if I could go there to do a site visit. The Jewish temple I went is called “Dor Dorim” and is ubicated in Weston, Florida. As Christianity is my religion, in this site visit essay I am going to talk about the Jewish ceremonies, their sacred days and their traditions.