MetaFilter posts tagged with jewish and jew

"I am always the last person to eat."

reenum — Wed, 01 May 2013 18:34:41 -0800

David Arenberg on being the only Jewish inmate in a state prison.

X-Mensch

Artw — Tue, 29 Jan 2013 08:38:11 -0800

Israel is closing the books on a rare millennia-old Jewish tradition.

Blasdelb — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 13:43:09 -0800

Nearly three decades after Israel began airlifting Ethiopia's ancient Jewish community out of the Horn of Africa, Israel's rabbis are now working to phase out the community's white-turbaned clergy, the kessoch, whose unusual religious practices are at odds with the rabbinate's Orthodox Judaism. "Descendants of the lost Israelite tribe of Dan, according to Jewish lore, Ethiopian Jews spent millennia isolated from the rest of the Jewish world.(PDF) In most Jewish communities, the priesthood of the Bible was replaced by rabbis who emphasized text study and prayer. Ethiopia's Jewish kessoch continued the traditions of Biblical-era priests, sacrificing animals and collecting the first fruits of the harvest. The two traditions diverged so much that the first trickle of Ethiopian Jewish immigrants to Israel were asked to undergo a quickened conversion ceremony to appease rabbis who were dubious about their religious pedigree. When Israeli clandestine operations rescued large groups of Ethiopian Jews from war and famine in the 1980s and early 1990s, a rabbinic consensus was reached and the newcomers did not have to convert - except for a group known as the Falash Mura, whose ancestors were forcibly converted to Christianity."

I Will Survive

andoatnp — Sat, 10 Jul 2010 11:08:42 -0800

Dancing Auschwitz
"Jewish artist defends YouTube video 'Dancing Auschwitz'"

Holy Night

andoatnp — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 15:02:25 -0800

The little-known Jewish holiday of Christmas Eve. Seriously.

RaDaK

tellurian — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 16:27:07 -0800

The manuscripts of David Kaufmann, Jewish scholar extraordinaire. Wonderful illuminations, inventive typography and even a little bit of naughtiness.

The True Story of Chanukkah

andoatnp — Sun, 21 Dec 2008 11:54:49 -0800

Chanukkah is the story of a group of warriors (the Maccabees, later the Hasmoneans, led by Mattathias) who rose up against the Greeks (the Seleucids), united the Jews, reclaimed the Temple (Beit HaMikdash), and then lit one day's supply of oil which miraculously lasted for eight days, started a brand new holiday called Chanukkah, and brought Jewish sovereignty and peace to the land of Israel. Except that almost every part of that story is either wrong or completely misleading. 1) Chanukkah as a Civil War Between the Jews To start with, Chanukkah is just as much about a civil war among the Jews as it is about a war between the Greeks and a solidified Jewish force (wikipedia):

Many modern scholars argue that the king may have been intervening in an internal civil war between the traditionalist Jews in the country and the Hellenized elite Jews in Jerusalem. These competed violently over who would be the High Priest, with traditionalists with Hebrew/Aramaic names like Onias overthrown by Hellenizers with Greek names like Jason and Menelaus. As the conflict escalated, Antiochus took the side of the Hellenizers by prohibiting the religious practices the traditionalists had rallied around. This may explain why the king, in a total departure from Seleucid practice in all other places and times, banned the traditional religion of a whole people.

The Maccabean uprising itself began with a Jew killing a Jew. ("After Antiochus issued his decrees forbidding Jewish religious practice, a rural Jewish priest from Modiin, Mattathias the Hasmonean, sparked the revolt against the Seleucid Empire by refusing to worship the Greek gods. Mattathias slew a Hellenistic Jew who stepped forward to offer a sacrifice to an idol in Mattathias' place. He and his five sons fled to the wilderness of Judea.") Ironically, although the Hasmoneans started out at war against the Hellenizing and secularizing Jews, as they solidified power they got into another conflict, except this time "the Hasmoneans sided with the Sadducees, the priestly advocates of the authority of Temple Sacrifice, against the Pharisees, the forerunners of the rabbis and the form of rabbinic Judaism we continue to practise today." So when the Orthodox in Israel and the secular Jews in American celebrate Chanukkah, they are both commemorating a military victory by a group that tried to destroy them. For more on Chanukkah as a civil war, see this article in Slate Magazine "The Maccabees and the Hellenists" 2) The Miracle of the Oil that Burned for Eight Days For people who don't believe in miracles, then obviously there wasn't any Chanukkah miracle. But even for those people who do believe in miracles, there is much evidence that there wasn't any magical oil that burned for eight days. The most obvious reason to discount the idea of magical oil burning for eight days is that this supposed miracle isn't referred to in the Book of Maccabees, the most contemporaneous account. The section on the rededication of the Temple merely reads "And so they kept the dedication of the altar eight days" with no mention anywhere of miraculous oils. Similarly, al hanissim, the special prayer said during Chanukkah refers to a miracle, but it's the miracle of a military victory, not of oil that burned for 8 days. The first mention of the magic oil appears in the Talmud, roughly 600 years after the rededication of the Temple. So why was a story invented about oil burning for eight days? Possibly, as a post-hoc explanation to explain why the holiday was eight days long (more on this shortly). Just as likely, to change the tone of the holiday from one of military conquest to God's presence:

So what happened to the story of the oil and the miracle of the lights? Well, that's where the rabbis come in. In the rabbinic sources, we find virtual silence on the topic of Chanukah in the Mishnah. It is only in the Gemara (the later rabbinic material which, along with the Mishna makes up the Talmud) that we find the new story about the oil and the miracle of the lights. By the time of the development of the Talmud, around 200-500 C.E., the Jews were living under Roman rule in Israel and under Persian rule in Babylon. In these circumstances, celebrating stories about military rebellion might not be viewed in too positive a light by the authorities, and the sages also feared that some Jewish hotheads might stir up trouble and cause all kinds of problems for the Jewish community. So the Talmudic sages put a new spin on the established holiday: God wrought a great miracle for the people, enabling the few to triumph over the many, and God showed the people another miracle in the oil, when a flask of ritually pure oil sufficient for one day lasted for all eight days.

3) Chanukkah as the Late Version of Sukkhot So if there wasn't magic oil that burned for eight days, then why is Chanukkah an eight day holiday? Because of what happened after the Maccabean revolt succeeded:

When they took over the Temple and cleaned out all the remnants of the idolatrous Greek worship, they rededicated the Temple and then immediately held a late observance of the eight day festival of Sukkot, the most important festival of Temple times. The next year, to commemorate their victory and the rededication of the Temple, a "late Sukkot" was held again, thereby giving birth to our eight-day celebration of Chanukah - which means "dedication".

And you want to guess what they called this new holiday?

As a result, they celebrated Sukkot late that year — in December, during the Hebrew month of Kislev. In fact, the book of Maccabees doesn't even call the festival Hanukkah. Instead, it refers to the celebration as Sukkot B'kislev — December Sukkot.

4) Additional Chanukkah Trivia About Herod the Great After the Hasmoneans seized power in Israel, they continued their civil war against other Jews. They also began forcibly converting other people in the land to Judaism:

Yet what was most devastating about Hasmonean rule was its retreat from the principles of the Maccabean rebellion. It was the Hasmoneans who introduced into Jewish history the infamous policy of coercive conversion by compelling pagan residents of Galilee and of Idumea either to accept conversion to Judaism or to be killed. This forcible conversion policy, so notorious in later Jewish history, unfortunately was introduce by the Jews themselves.

Then, along comes King Herod, but "since Herod's family had converted to Judaism under duress, his Jewishness had come into question by some elements of Judean society." And if you go on the Western Wall Tunnel Tour in Jerusalem, the tour guide will tell you that Herod rebuilt the Temple in Jerusalem to try to prove his commitment to Judaism, but even after all his efforts the Temple Priests refused to recognize his Judaism and would not let him enter the Temple that he built. And don't even get me started on potato lattkes...

Do you know these children?

Asparagirl — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 12:32:10 -0800

Do you, or an older relative of yours, recognize any of these children? More than 70 children separated from their families during WWII, now all elderly men and women, are using the Internet to try to find some answers about their pasts, their families, and sometimes even their own names. They are soliciting help and suggestions in the comments sections on each story. Sadly typical story: "The infant was hungry and crying, so her mother asked for milk from a Polish couple that happened to be on the train station. The Polish man brought milk for the baby. Then the Jewish mother asked if they would want to take the baby as their own because she could not keep it. This couple did not have any children, so after some consideration, they agreed. They asked the Jewish mother who she was, but she told them that it was better for them and for the baby not to know who she was. She then gave her newborn baby girl, who was probably one month old, to the Polish couple. The Polish couple raised the girl as if she was their biological daughter and never told her how she had come into the family. The girl grew up, married and had a son. It is this son who wants to find his Jewish roots..."

Some Jewish Humor

serazin — Sun, 07 Dec 2008 23:14:43 -0800

Sadie tells Maurice, "You’re a schmuck! You always were a schmuck and you always will be a schmuck! You look, act and dress like a schmuck! You’ll be a schmuck until the day you die! And if they ran a world-wide competition for schmucks, you would be the world’s second biggest schmuck!" "Why only second place?" Maurice asks. "Because you’re a schmuck!" Sadie screams. Some Jewish humor.

JewTube

jeremy b — Wed, 01 Aug 2007 11:58:27 -0800

JewTube. It's exactly what it sounds like.

jews in afghanistan

ciderwoman — Wed, 26 Jan 2005 04:27:35 -0800

And then there was one. Following the death of his neighbour Ishaq Levin, Zebulon Simentov has become the last Jew in Afghanistan. There have been Jews here since at least the eighth century, but now Simentov is on his own.

But the saddest fact of all is the fact that up until his death the two men hated each other.

Throw the Jew down the well

Jase_B — Sun, 22 Aug 2004 03:13:06 -0800

Highlights bigotry or encourages it?
Ali G comedian Sacha Baron Cohen's latest Channel 4 show, 'Borat's Television Programme', is being investigated by TV watchdogs following complaints about a sketch featuring an anti-Semitic song titled 'Throw the Jew down the well'.

A Channel 4 spokesman said: "Sacha Baron Cohen's humour is ironic and actually highlights bigotry and ignorance." The irony being that Baron is himself a Jew.

To be a great photographer, Garry Winogrand liked to claim during the 1970's, it was first of all necessary to be Jewish

mrhappy — Sun, 07 Jul 2002 11:51:27 -0800

To be a great photographer, Garry Winogrand liked to claim during the 1970's, it was first of all necessary to be Jewish Why didn't they tell me this in art school? (via NYTimes)