Celtic Judaism

Rally in support of Israel’s war in Gaza in NYC

Photo is by Dan Sieradski of the rally for Israel in New York on January 6th 2009, he has even more on Flickr, as well.

I don’t know if there’s anything more eye-opening than converting to another religion (or none at all) and becoming a non-Christian in America. Roughly 80% of America self-identifies as Christian. As a result, most aspects of life in America are dictated by Christianity.

You tell someone that you are Jewish, and that comes with a set of questions but no big deal. Tell someone that you are converting, well, that’s just strange. Never mind that people choose different religions all the time, such as becoming a “born again” Christian; Judaism seems to be seen as a religion that someone wouldn’t often freely choose, but a burden that one receives at birth.

I came across an article about privilege and unconscious ideology (such as racism, sexism) and found that much of it applied to Christianity in America. I wondered if someone had written about Christian privilege before. Lo and behold, yes.

[Read the rest of this entry...]

via bauldoff:

Matisyahu deployed what may be the only large, mirrored, rotating dreidel in show business — a Jewish answer to a disco ball — at Webster Hall on Sunday night, the first night of Hanukkah. How could I not blog that? (thanks, John and John!)

There will be two films with Jewish interest released in the US during the end of December:

• I hadn’t heard of Defiance until a week or two ago when I stumbled across a book of the same title, which boasted how it was now a major motion picture. “In WWII Russia, Jewish refugees band together into a brigade that hides in the forest, ambushes Germans and survives until war’s end, eventually 1200 strong.”
• Likewise, I came across Waltz with Bashir last night. It looks very interesting and promising, especially so because of it’s format: animated documentary.“One night at a bar, an old friend tells director Ari about a recurring nightmare in which he is chased by 26 vicious dogs. Every night the same number of beasts. The two men conclude that there is a connection between the dream and their Israeli Army mission in the first Lebanon War of the early eighties. Ari is surprised he can’t remember a thing anymore about that period of his life…”

Please cut me some slack! I am very late to the game– I just discovered G-dcast tonight. I’d heard about it across various Jewish blogs, but I figured I wouldn’t like it. (I hate audio/visual presentations and favor the written word.) I was totally wrong, it’s really neat.

The premise is to cover the Torah portion in 4 minutes. I know it sounds like that wouldn’t be enough, but it surprsingly works out well. It’s aimed towards a younger audience, but it’s not dumbed-down and doesn’t alienate older people. My favorite one so far is Lech Lecha. The music is by Stereo Sinai, and the song can be downloaded for free.

Heath Campbell and his wife, Deborah, have named their three young children JoyceLynn Aryan Nation Campbell, Honszlynn Hinler Jeannie Campbell, and Adolf Hitler Campbell. Yes, for real. Even though they’ve gotten their birthday cakes from Wal-Mart for two years previous, they decided to expand their horizons. However, ShopRite refused to personalize a birthday cake for young Adolf Hitler.

The parents say that they aren’t white supremacists, they just think that “races shouldn’t mix” and wanted their children to have “unique names.” They also don’t get what the big deal is about naming their children after an ideology responsible for the deaths of millions during the 20th century. Despite having a multitude of swastikas in their home, they can’t seem to draw it correctly, nor do they consider it to be a symbol having any meaning:

[Read the rest of this entry...]

During the time I spent streaming CNN-IBN and CNN International online to get up-to-the-minute information on the Mumbai attacks, I had a bad feeling about the people in the Chabad House. After looking at the pictures of the aftermath, it was sickening, but not surprising, to hear that the terrorists had treated the Jewish victims terribly:

“Bombay has a long history of terror. I have seen bodies of riot victims, gang war and previous terror attacks like bomb blasts. But this was entirely different. It was shocking and disturbing,” a doctor said.

Asked what was different about the victims of the incident, another doctor said: “It was very strange. I have seen so many dead bodies in my life, and was yet traumatised. A bomb blast victim’s body might have been torn apart and could be a very disturbing sight. But the bodies of the victims in this attack bore such signs about the kind of violence of urban warfare that I am still unable to put my thoughts to words,” he said.

Asked specifically if he was talking of torture marks, he said: “It was apparent that most of the dead were tortured. What shocked me were the telltale signs showing clearly how the hostages were executed in cold blood,” one doctor said.

The other doctor, who had also conducted the post-mortem of the victims, said: “Of all the bodies, the Israeli victims bore the maximum torture marks. It was clear that they were killed on the 26th itself. It was obvious that they were tied up and tortured before they were killed. It was so bad that I do not want to go over the details even in my head again,” he said.

I hadn’t heard of this earlier, but I could also just be the last person to find out: President-elect Barack Obama’s cousin-in-law is an African-American Jewish rabbi, Capers Funnye. I really like one of his quotes in the article:

“I often like to tell new people that when you start studying Judaism, every time you get a new book, every time you learn something new, it should feel like dipping a spoon into a bucket of fresh well water. If you ever had well water, it stimulates the whole being — this is what Judaism does when we learn. It stimulates the being,” Funnye said. “It’s never stopped doing that for me. The more I learn, the richer it tastes; the better it tastes.”

Not Irish, but could possibly be “Celtic” in a stretch of the definition: a Tartan kippah!
Tartan being the plaid fabric you see on Scottish kilts. 100% Scottish wool woven in Scotland.

Some commentors at FailedMessiah are questioning the conversion to Judaism prior to their wedding of Rahm Emanuel’s wife, Amy Rule. They are of the “if it’s not Orthodox, it doesn’t count” approach towards conversion. Given that Rahm Emanuel and his family are active members of a Modern-Orthodox synagogue, with children attending a Jewish day school, you’d think there wouldn’t be any doubt. Furthermore, it’s rude (not to mention an actual sin) to remind a convert of their former status as a non-Jew.

For all anyone knows, she could have spent the entire four years from their first date until their wedding day converting and learning more about Judaism. Maybe she had always been drawn towards it in her life, but it wasn’t until dating a Jewish man that she began to seriously look into becoming Jewish. Perhaps she was already converting when they met.

Considering the family’s involvement in Judaism, this clearly was not something undertaken lightly simply so they could get married. Essentially, Amy Rule’s conversion is none of our damn business unless she makes it ours.