I'm not going to lie, I really LOVE my summer, particularly sleeping in until 8 or 9 when I can. While I was excited to get into this class, I was worried that after a couple of days, I might begin to be less than enthused when my alarm went off at 5am. Nope...not yet! I'm in awe of this experience. I've learned so much in the last three days that I might need to sleep for a week, lol.
Today we learned about Judaism through some readings, attending Congregation Beth Shalom in Naperville, and listening to a student panel. The information presented today was excellent and plentiful. By the end of today's class, I was exhausted and had to come to take a quick nap before writing this blog.
Mr. Bernie Newman gave our group an extremely interesting presentation on Judaism. Bernie shared that Judaism isn't so much a religion but rather a family. Jews are united because being Jewish makes all Jews family. They may not necessarily have the same beliefs but regardless are still family. If a Jew is in trouble, all Jews step in to help each other. What is most important is to be moral and ethical and to follow the ten Commandments taken from the Torah. (There are 613 commandments in total).
According to Bernie, there are 14 millions Jews worldwide. Judaism has no creed or dogma. He shared that all Jews believe they have a responsibility for all humanity and that they believe you can find God in anything you do. One additional constant is that if you believe in Jesus, you aren’t Jewish. Jews don’t consider Jesus to be a prophet, Messiah, or the son of God but do believe that Jesus was a Jew.
Judaism has clearly evolved overtime. Commandments that are no longer relevant have morphed over time. For example animal sacrifice have long ago been replaced with prayers. Ancient rabbis added conditions to make commandments that are problematic unable to be carried out without a majority consensus.
For me, the highlight of my experience at Beth Shalom was when Bernie showed our group the 100 year old Torah that had been saved from Germany by being hidden in a cave during the Holocaust. It was beautiful to see and to recognize it's history as well as reflection on the resiliency and strength of Judaism. I also truly appreciated just listening to the Torah being read even though I don't understand Hebrew.
Immediately upon returning from Beth Shalom, a student panel of three Jewish students past and present from Naperville Central shared their experiences growing up as a Jew in Naperville. What a beautiful, strong group of young women! I won't lie, I teared up at points listening to some of the hardships they have faced but also loved their resiliency and their sense of humor in the face of it all.
The three young women began by stating what being Jewish meant to each of them. They individually stated that being Jewish is an extremely important part of their identity. The three girls continuously referred to being a family and community. Additionally, they shared that those in their community go beyond themselves in supporting each other. It was clear by watching their interactions and listening to their stories that this was their truth.
While the girls had many positives to say about growing up in Naperville and felt that for the most part they were supported by strong and understanding teachers and community, they shared many difficulties. Listening to their retell of their experiences to anti Semitic comments and bullying while hard to hear was extremely helpful. Due to the Sabbath, Friday at sundown until Saturday and sundown are sacred which means that this impacts their ability to attend birthday parties, football games, sports activities, etc. While two of the three girls mentioned being in sports, they shared how difficult it was to have to talk to their coaches about missing various events as they were concerned they would be excluded from the team. Each of the girls mentioned the difficulty of missing multiple school days in September/October for Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. When asked what we as teacher's could to help, they shared providing understanding as well as extensions beyond a few days to complete missed work would be extremely helpful. They shared they are often spending their missed school time in synagogue praying/fasting/sitting all day. Additionally, they shared that they didn't particularly feel valued or as if they belonged in the schools during the month of December due to the emphasis on Christmas. but have noticed that this is beginning to improve in recent year. What was most difficult for them to share and us to hare was what type of anti-semitism they've experiences. The remarks and actions from their peers and even perceived "friends" was heartbreaking to hear. I'm so grateful that they shared these experiences with us so that we can do a better job of preventing them from happening at all. How do other students feel it's okay to throw pennies at another student???? How in the world do they feel it's okay to share Holocaust jokes???!!! We MUST do a better job of educating our youth on various religions so that they have an understanding of what they are saying.
This brings me back to trying to answer my essential question of why people fear, hate, or discriminate others because they are different? and the even bigger question, how do we stop it? I think what I'm learning or more accurately affirming is through education. We need to be educating our students/families/community NOW or even better as early as we can in a students educational career so that differences remain just that, differences NOT inequalities, discrimination, etc.
Becky
6.13.19 This morning while drinking my morning coffee, I read Joe Nikel's blog @ https://joenikkelblog.weebly.com/ . I really enjoyed reading's Joe's perspective. Throughout his post, Joe acknowledged his "aha" moments and while my experience is different than his, I found myself agreeing along with many of the connections he's made. One thing I also appreciated about Joe's post was how he set it up to comment on the 6 principles. I attempted to do do that in the same way but found it challenging to make my post also readable so I wrote mine as a narrative while still remarking on the six principles. Joe did a way better job than me on that.
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