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There are Jews in Alabama?
A discussion board for "Jews in Alabama?" listeners
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thetzk
Newbie
Joined: 26 Oct 2005
Posts: 8
Location: Waltham, MA, USA
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 Posted: Fri Oct 28, 2005 11:01 am Post subject: |
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| admarcus wrote: | | ...one of the few remaining nations with it's own religion. |
And the state of Israel adds the territorial dimension. They way I see it, in ancient times, you had the Jewish People = Religion + Culture, History and Language + Land.
Then, for 2000 years, many Jews lost the Land factor and began a process that made the Language and Culture aspects less central in everyday life. What was left was that people who wanted a Jewish life had to base it mostly on Religion.
Come the new state of Israel (or Zionism as a whole) and offered the return of the Land, Culture and Language - bigger and better. I can see why Haredim would object.
Now, for me, as someone who grew up in Israel, religion was optional. In my family, we didn't really care about it. But we had the Land, Language and Culture as pillars of our identity.
Since I moved to the US, partnered with an American and happily integrated myself in the American way of life, my Jewishness is beginning to suffer.
So in order to reconnect, I basically have two choices:
- An American Jewish community
- An Israeli-in-exile community or cultural center
Both are not hard to find in the Boston area, but both have drawbacks if we consider that my partner will want to take part of it.
So if we go to a Jewish community, Reform or Reconstructionist, I will be hit with (what I think is) more religion than I can take. J, however, will be just fine because he is a firm believer in some universal deity. Since everyone there speak mostly English and are American, he will fit in.
In a more Israeli setting, the Religious part will be greatly reduced, but someone who was born and raised as a Protestant American will be a fish out of water.
So we decided to make the rounds. We start with the Reforms tonight. |
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admarcus
Fan of the Show
Joined: 25 Oct 2005
Posts: 16
Location: Chestnut Hill, MA
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| Posted: Fri Oct 28, 2005 11:24 am Post subject: |
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| thetzk wrote: | So in order to reconnect, I basically have two choices:
- An American Jewish community
- An Israeli-in-exile community or cultural center
Both are not hard to find in the Boston area, but both have drawbacks if we consider that my partner will want to take part of it.
So if we go to a Jewish community, Reform or Reconstructionist, I will be hit with (what I think is) more religion than I can take. J, however, will be just fine because he is a firm believer in some universal deity. Since everyone there speak mostly English and are American, he will fit in.
In a more Israeli setting, the Religious part will be greatly reduced, but someone who was born and raised as a Protestant American will be a fish out of water.
So we decided to make the rounds. We start with the Reforms tonight. |
Something to consider: Synagogues are not the only center of Jewish Community in Boston. While I am a member of a synagogue, most of my Jewish community involvement is through Combine Jewish Philanthropies of Greater Boston (CJP), our local federation. And non-Jewish partners are certainly welcome to participate. My good friend Charles is not Jewish (his wife is) and he is on the board of one of the CJP groups, and is involved with both event planning and fundraising.
The two groups in CJP that I am involved with are the Young Leadership Division (meaning people in their 20s and 30s, I believe), and the Biotechnology group. There is also a GLBT group, among others.
You can check out more details and a calendar of events at www.cjp.org.
For the Israeli connection, Boston partners with Haifa on a number of active projects - not the usual sister city thing, but full cooperation on business and technology, social services, and other programs. For info on that, check out the following links:
http://www.cjp.org/content_display.html?ArticleID=145160
and
http://www.haifa-boston.org/
If you have questions about any of this stuff, let me know. If I don't have the info, I almost certainly know someone who does 
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The universe is not only stranger than we imagine, it is stranger than we can imagine.
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eric
Podcaster, Webmaster, Sophie's Daddy
Joined: 20 Oct 2005
Posts: 323
Location: Birmingham, AL
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| Posted: Fri Oct 28, 2005 11:42 am Post subject: |
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This is fantastic. If this podcast, and by extension this message board, encourages TZK to find a connection to Judaism that he has lost; and if it brings people together who can share information (great info re. CJP in Boston, Ari)......wow.
I'm a little verklempt right now, to be honest....
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Carol @israelisms
Slightly-Obsessed Fan
Joined: 21 Oct 2005
Posts: 61
Location: Israel
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| Posted: Fri Oct 28, 2005 11:53 am Post subject: |
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| Just my two agorot- We are a people/nation and a religion because we were a people before we came to Sinai and became an organized religion hence we get to be both. |
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Lee
Slightly-Obsessed Fan
Joined: 20 Oct 2005
Posts: 54
Location: Los Angeles
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| Posted: Fri Oct 28, 2005 4:23 pm Post subject: |
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Eric, it sounds like you're kvelling!
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DISCLAIMER: If Lee's postings ever seem to make sense, it's because he just googled something. |
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eric
Podcaster, Webmaster, Sophie's Daddy
Joined: 20 Oct 2005
Posts: 323
Location: Birmingham, AL
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| Posted: Fri Oct 28, 2005 4:42 pm Post subject: |
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| Lee wrote: | | Eric, it sounds like you're kvelling! |
Kvelling like a bubbe, I am!!!
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"The Magic 8 Ball tried to warn us years ago about Microsoft, when it said 'Outlook not so good.' So true." |
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Lee
Slightly-Obsessed Fan
Joined: 20 Oct 2005
Posts: 54
Location: Los Angeles
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| Posted: Fri Oct 28, 2005 6:01 pm Post subject: |
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| Quote: | | But it is not really the only one. If you look in the parts of South America, you can see that indiginous groups that are officially Christian actually still practice there "national" or tribal religion. I am sure there are similar things in parts of the Muslim world |
Admarcus -- you make a good point, but I had the experience closer to home. I visited the reservation for the Cuhuilla Indians outside Palm Springs last year. They have a KICK ASS creation story. They have a couple gods make the world, one sighted and the other blind. The blind one makes everything all messed up and twisted and his creatures end up populating the underworld and he rules them. The sighted one creates the people. And, of course, like MANY tribal creation stories, he creates the Cuhuilla first, right there, where Palm Springs is today. TAnd all men over the world were Cuhuilla indians who left the tribe and wandered. Their god eventually did stuff the people didn't like. I think he went after some young maidens, got into peoples' business too much. So --and this is the cool part that's hard to get my head around -- they killed their creator god.
There are still Cuhuilla doing their practices and passing along their ways, but not enough. And of course, the same is true of tribes across the continent.
In this way I like the idea that I heard Schulweis talk about on TV once -- God made us, but God did not make religion.
it's the Reconstructionist idea that we are not the Chosen People, we are the Choosing People. Each tribe started out with its own creation stories, it's own ways of practicing, passed down generation to generation. And when others lost their special practices and stories and totally embraced other cultures or religions, or a whole succession of them, we kept our tribal heritage and embellished and refined it.
Now to go off on a tangent--- Indian tribes used to occassionally have outside people join the tribe. Not quite conversion, but for one reason or another people would join the tribe and your descendants would be viewed as tribe and would live with the rest of the tribe. No one had any issues with these people being authentic tribe members. Folks knew that their grandparents had originally not been of that particular tribe, or that they were technically only a 1/4 Indian or something, but the "converts" lived the life, they were part of the community. Then came Indian Casinos. Now it's a growing problem -- to grow each person's piece of the gaming revenues, Tribal leaders are shrinking the numbers of tribesmembers by dredging up the past and deeming folks' membership not authentic based on their actions or even distant ancestor's actions, tossing them out of the tribe, even when it's been over a hundred years and the people are living in the tribe and no one would ever question their tribal-ness otherwise.
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DISCLAIMER: If Lee's postings ever seem to make sense, it's because he just googled something. |
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thetzk
Newbie
Joined: 26 Oct 2005
Posts: 8
Location: Waltham, MA, USA
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| Posted: Fri Oct 28, 2005 8:31 pm Post subject: |
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We just got back from Temple.
The good news is that the service was not as bad as I expected. I still have a problem singing praise to God I don't believe in, but at least it's my God... :?
The congregration itself is not our cup of tea. A little older and suburban than we like and not a lot of extra religious activities.
If anyone knows of a movement in Judaism that put emphasis on picnics, outings and parties - let me know...
Overall, I am glad I went. But for me, a little Yiddishkeit goes a long way.
The search will go on.
Shabbat Shalom. |
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eric
Podcaster, Webmaster, Sophie's Daddy
Joined: 20 Oct 2005
Posts: 323
Location: Birmingham, AL
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| Posted: Fri Oct 28, 2005 10:44 pm Post subject: |
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| thetzk wrote: | We just got back from Temple.
The good news is that the service was not as bad as I expected. I still have a problem singing praise to God I don't believe in, but at least it's my God... :?
The congregration itself is not our cup of tea. A little older and suburban than we like and not a lot of extra religious activities.
If anyone knows of a movement in Judaism that put emphasis on picnics, outings and parties - let me know...
Overall, I am glad I went. But for me, a little Yiddishkeit goes a long way.
The search will go on.
Shabbat Shalom. |
Like with all things in life, sometimes the journey is as or more important than the eventual destination.....
Thanks for keeping us in the loop!!
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"The Magic 8 Ball tried to warn us years ago about Microsoft, when it said 'Outlook not so good.' So true." |
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Carbell79
Newbie
Joined: 08 Nov 2005
Posts: 10
Location: Glendale, CA
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| Posted: Tue Nov 08, 2005 10:40 pm Post subject: |
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My opinion on are we a religion or a people/nation. We are a people first. We are the children of Israel. Later on we found the religion at Sinai. Since all of this is over 3000 years, we seem to blur them together. The religion is a part of the culuture, but the culture came first. Even though we value the religion the highest part of the culture. We are the oldest civilization in the world around today.
As far as your own belief THETZK, this is how I look at it and it might help you in Temple. My belief in God is stronger now than before I went to Israel less than a year ago, but my feelings still apply.
If you look at us as a culture, these are the traditions that have been passed down for 1000s of years. And that's pretty cool. You are also paying tribute to what has been past down to you from our ancestors. Also I'm a product of a Holocaust survivor, so if someone was ready to wipe us out for our belief, we must keep it going and pass it on. My mom always said that I had to respect my heritage even if my faith in God waivers.
It's OK to question. That is a Jewish belief. It allows us to understand us and the world better. That is why Jews discover so many things, the idea of questioning is in the roots of our culture. Even the great prophets questioned God. Keep up the great work.
P.S. I joined a Temple for the first time since my Bar Mitzvah for the High Holy days and there was a major age issue for me as well. I think I was the only one under 30 and over 18 in the Temple(I'm 26). The average age was so high, that the members could only set me up with their grand daughters.
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Glendale, CA |
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