Which Jew is right for you?

When we started to compare and contrast conservative Judaism with orthodox Judaism, we began to look at what it means to be a orthodox Jew. They participate in a strict following of Jewish law, and go by the Halakha, stressing the importance of following this fully and not moving away from it at all. When we looked into reform and conservative Judaism, they were both open to innovation and modernity and allowed those who followed them to fit Judaism into their own lives. Those groups allow themselves to change over time based on the way things are in the outside world. This liberal view differed completely from the orthodox following who is out to change society, not allow society doesn’t change them. The stereotypes for orthodox Judaism present it as being old and very strict, however to my surprise orthodox groups were the first to introduce things like guitar and internet, so they may not be as traditional as people tend to believe. Other values in orthodox Judaism that differ from reform and conservative is the role that men and women play. They can both be religious authorities by women are limited in occupation and cannot take on the position of something like a Rabbi. The reform traditions look at men and women as totally equal, showing another factor of their more liberal view. Women are also expected to cover up their arms and legs by wearing long pants or skirts and long sleeves or sweaters. They are able to play with this idea of modesty and wear something like a mini skirt with tights which was really interesting to me because when I think of the dress of an orthodox Jew, I would not envision something like that. When we looked at the orthodox website, an individual in class expressed how it was difficult to understand for someone who is not Jewish. The reform and conservative websites were much more accessible and manageable for all people, not only those who have previous knowledge about Judaism. The values that are part of each following, are displayed visually on each of the websites so that they are representational of either reform, conservative or orthodox Judaism.

Gates of Prayer; an all inclusive guide to Judaism

The notion of modernity has been embedded into religion and has been discussed in our class in relation to Reform Judaism. I thought it was interesting to think about tradition and Judaism as something modern, when it dates back historically several of years ago. I got the impression that Reform Judaism seemed to be more of a trendy kind of thing, that remained open for the unique identities of people in our society. Reading more on Reform Judaism, I was fascinated that there was recently a new prayer book that came out to meet the needs of the tradition. I had never thought about Reform, Conservative and Orthodox having different prayer books, although they do have different practices and rituals. Going along with modernity, the new book, Gates of Prayer offers many different ways for someone to read it. This shows how they incorporate and support the different types of religious followers and beliefs. Instead of being exclusive, it seems to be rather inclusive. After taking these things into consideration, it got me wondering if the websites representational of Reform Judaism differed from those of Conservative Judaism. After looking at reformjudaism.org and uscj.org the USCJ seemed to have more information, with 7 different tabs of information like, Jewish Living & Learning, social action, leadership and administration, Israel, holidays and etc. The conservative website had what seemed like a more concrete path for taking Jewish journeys, where the Reform outlook is that it Judaism can be whatever will be beneficial to your life and yourself. The two websites did not differ as much as I had expected as far as the actual makeup of the site but uscj.com has a more extensive website. It included more information about finances, people with disabilities, programs in Israel, where Reform Judaism was more about learning, experience and the congregation. After finding this, I thought about the preconceived notion that Reform Judaism is less religious then the others. From personal experience, belonging to a Reform temple, I have heard people talk about Reform Judaism as some kind of a "joke" and how much shorter and more casual the services and overall environment of the temple was then those who belong to a conservative or orthodox temple. Looking at the way the websites are presented, I would think that the more serious presentation and information on uscj.com would lead one to agree with this assumption.

The Authentic Jew

The second day of class our topic was, “Ground rules: Exploring Signposts of Jewish Identity.” When I saw the name of the Cheng article that was assigned for that day immediately caught my interest; “The Inauthentic Jew: Jewishness and Its Discontents.” The notion of authenticity is a strange one because who can say what is authentic enough to be able to consider yourself a certain identity. Of course, the goal of the course is to investigate what makes someone “Jewish”, but I appreciated an article written by someone who identifies himself as a Jew without ever converting to the religion. This struggle for identity as a Jew is one that I can relate to on a more personal level. I identify with being Jewish, I was Bat Mitzvah, attended temple on the high holy days and went to Hebrew school. However, only my father is Jewish. My mother was raised Catholic and has never converted to Judaism but goes to temple with us and fully supported the choice to raise us Jewish. So I follow rituals that are thought of by many as traditionally Jewish, but my mother is not Jewish and each year we also celebrate Christmas. I liked how Cheng broke it down in his article saying that race or ethnicity, religion, culture and nation/nationalism are all components of what need to be analyzed when defining authenticity. Even when looking at these things, it is hard to conclude who and what is Jewish which we found out when we looked up different people. Do you need to fit into a certain number of categories to be Jewish? Or is having one just enough. Our group had Gwyneth Paltrow and it was really fascinating to see how she reacted to the question about being Jewish. With a Jewish father, she considers herself Jewish although she was never Batmitzvah and her husband follows a different faith. After looking into some more about what makes someone Jewish, I started to notice how the websites of organized companies that affiliate themselves with the Jewish faith define what is Jewish by their standards. For example when we looked at www.reformjudaism.org, the website highlighted a few key concepts that they wanted to be associated with the identity of Judaism like Tikkun olam, diversity, equality and acceptance of all gays, lesbians and women and God the Torah and Israel. Looking into identity is very complex and there are several qualities and characteristics that could be considered Jewish.