Questions about Judaism

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Re: Questions about Judaism

Postby OrangeEyebrows » Sun Jun 02, 2013 2:00 am

Actually, I have a serious question, and it's sort of the same as what I asked in JamishT's Amish thread. Aviel, Eric, you guys are both atheists or approximations thereof. Yet you still consider yourselves Jewish. Or I assume you do - it's part of your username, Eric, and as far as I know Aviel is a Hebrew name for a city in Israel. So it seems as though it's still a large part of your identities. Is it a religious thing, a community thing or, for want of a better word, a racial thing?

I apologise if it's an offensive or insensitive question. Say the word and I'll turn myself over to Rebo for flogging.
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Re: Questions about Judaism

Postby DamianaRaven » Sun Jun 02, 2013 2:42 am

OrangeEyebrows wrote:I apologise if it's an offensive or insensitive question.


That's gracious of you, but I honestly don't see how it could offend anyone unless they were just looking for an excuse. I see it as you giving Eric and Aviel a great opening to express pride in their heritage. Aviel (I think) has already mentioned being proud of the Jewish contribution to science, as well he should be! In any event, it was a good question, Orange, and I look forward to hearing both of their answers.
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Re: Questions about Judaism

Postby Deathclaw_Puncher » Sun Jun 02, 2013 2:50 am

OrangeEyebrows wrote:Actually, I have a serious question, and it's sort of the same as what I asked in JamishT's Amish thread. Aviel, Eric, you guys are both atheists or approximations thereof. Yet you still consider yourselves Jewish. Or I assume you do - it's part of your username, Eric, and as far as I know Aviel is a Hebrew name for a city in Israel. So it seems as though it's still a large part of your identities. Is it a religious thing, a community thing or, for want of a better word, a racial thing?

I apologise if it's an offensive or insensitive question. Say the word and I'll turn myself over to Rebo for flogging.

In my case it's the last two. I attended Hebrew School was part of TASTY(Temple Or Rishon And Sunrise Temple Youth), and attend NFTY-CWR (National Federation of Temple Youth- Central West Region) retreats (as seen in the picture thread). And of course, there was the whole bar mitzvah thing.
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Re: Questions about Judaism

Postby Deathclaw_Puncher » Sun Jun 02, 2013 2:51 am

Gash wrote:Do any of the Chosen people here know Jew Jitsu?

No, but I used to take Aikido.
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Re: Questions about Judaism

Postby Learned Nand » Sun Jun 02, 2013 5:20 am

Gash wrote:Do any of the Chosen people here know Jew Jitsu?

I know Kempo, but my dad has a Jewish friend who knows Ju Jitsu. You don't want to fuck with him, he's huge.

OrangeEyebrows wrote:Actually, I have a serious question, and it's sort of the same as what I asked in JamishT's Amish thread. Aviel, Eric, you guys are both atheists or approximations thereof. Yet you still consider yourselves Jewish. Or I assume you do - it's part of your username, Eric, and as far as I know Aviel is a Hebrew name for a city in Israel.

I know of no city named Aviel (though there's a settlement block near Nablus named Ariel). Aviel is a reasonably common Israeli name meaning "my father is God." The name is ironic in a few ways, first in that my ancestors haven't been Israeli for 2000 years, and second in that neither I nor my father believe in God.

So it seems as though it's still a large part of your identities. Is it a religious thing, a community thing or, for want of a better word, a racial thing?

I'd mostly describe it as a cultural thing, or potentially an ethnic thing. It varies from person to person though. For my uncle it's certainly a religious thing. For my friend it's also largely a community thing, as it is for my mom.

I apologise if it's an offensive or insensitive question. Say the word and I'll turn myself over to Rebo for flogging.

It wasn't offensive, but I'm sure some people here are into that regardless.
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Terry Pratchett wrote:The trouble with having an open mind, of course, is that people will insist on coming along and trying to put things in it.

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He tested with Turing,
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and now we'll have peace for a spell.
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Re: Questions about Judaism

Postby moosemaimer » Sun Jun 02, 2013 12:30 pm

Gash wrote:Do any of the Chosen people here know Jew Jitsu?


I believe they call that Krav Maga.
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Re: Questions about Judaism

Postby D-LOGAN » Sun Jul 28, 2013 11:02 am

Okay I've got a question for our Jewish chums ..... would yez not give aul J.C. a go? Ah go on, you know you want to. Just take him for a test drive, and if you're not totally satisfied with your Jesus-ing after the first 24 hours, we'll give you your money back.

Here look:

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How can you say no to those puppy dog eyes? Order now and we'll throw in a Thor for free.
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Re: Questions about Judaism

Postby Marcuse » Sun Jul 28, 2013 11:40 am

Yeah! That's a good deal, I'd love a Thor

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Thor is here!
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Re: Questions about Judaism

Postby Learned Nand » Sun Jul 28, 2013 8:44 pm

D-LOGAN wrote:Okay I've got a question for our Jewish chums ..... would yez not give aul J.C. a go?

Pfft. The guy's a Messiah but can't even save the Jews from the Romans, much less the world. And he clearly didn't get the Jewish community: if you want to impress us, you don't turn water into wine, you turn it into caffeine free diet coke. And the good samaritan parable was kind of racist.

Marcuse wrote:Yeah! That's a good deal, I'd love a Thor

Eh, maybe if he threw in a carrier.
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Terry Pratchett wrote:The trouble with having an open mind, of course, is that people will insist on coming along and trying to put things in it.

Click for a Limerick
OrangeEyebrows wrote:There once was a guy, Aviel,
whose arguments no one could quell.
He tested with Turing,
his circuits fried during,
and now we'll have peace for a spell.
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Re: Questions about Judaism

Postby Marcuse » Sun Jul 28, 2013 9:36 pm

Aviel's the boss toss
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Re: Questions about Judaism

Postby Learned Nand » Sun Jul 28, 2013 9:38 pm

Marcuse wrote:Aviel's the boss toss

Wrong on both counts. I play on random, and I suck at Starcraft.
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Terry Pratchett wrote:The trouble with having an open mind, of course, is that people will insist on coming along and trying to put things in it.

Click for a Limerick
OrangeEyebrows wrote:There once was a guy, Aviel,
whose arguments no one could quell.
He tested with Turing,
his circuits fried during,
and now we'll have peace for a spell.
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Re: Questions about Judaism

Postby Marcuse » Sun Jul 28, 2013 9:40 pm

I only spectate so I'm even worse. Bronze league herooooooooooes!
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Re: Questions about Judaism

Postby blehblah » Sat Feb 08, 2014 4:29 pm

Tablo wrote:What does a jew look like?


That reminds me of one of the most interesting questions, in my experience, that a high-school teacher posed to a class that I was in. "What does a Canadian look like?". You can substitute "American" if it suits you. Answers such as, "Cold", were proposed, but kind-of missed the point.

I later found-out that this particular biology teacher had attended, erm, like, priest-school (?), before getting his B.Sc.. He bombed-out when he let the holy-dean-meister (?) know that he had some pretty fundamental doubts about the existence of gee-to-the-oh-dee.
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Re: Questions about Judaism

Postby blehblah » Sat Feb 08, 2014 4:52 pm

Sokay, I'll tell a short story, and you guys can let me know what you think.

At one point in the fairly recent past (a year, maybe a bit more), I'm in Oman. Interestingly, Oman is run by a guy is rather quite gay, but one doesn't say that in Oman, or anywhere near Oman. That's a curious tangent that could be explored elsewhere. I get to chatting with business folks there, which is a thing I do. We get on the subject of American/Canadian Jewish folks, and how we have several great relationship/sales folks who happen to be Jewish, but of the anything-but-Orthodox variety. I openly ask, "Would it be a huge no-no to bring a person like that to a gig like this?".

The answer caught me by surprise, which perhaps says more about my own ignorance than anything else.

The answer was that they don't, at least in Oman, have a problem with Jewish folks. They do have a problem with Israelis.

I found that split interesting. I guess it's like splitting between dealing with Orthodox-anything and folks who are more interesting in getting business done than worrying about beliefs. To be clear, they emphasized "Israelis" in a way that I understood that it's not about nationality, but about rationality. They didn't say "Anyone from Israel", it was "Izzzzraaaeleeese", if that makes sense (it's hard to communicate in a written medium).

Then again, maybe I'm just a naive, green-eyed Canadian.

Anyhow, that's my story.
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Re: Questions about Judaism

Postby Learned Nand » Sun Feb 09, 2014 1:17 am

Then that makes Oman more progressive than much of the Arab world. A 2011 poll by Pew found that Muslims in the Arab World almost universally held negative views of Jews. There's also a lot of excellent data in that poll about how Muslims and Westerners view each other in general, so it's definitely worth checking out.
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Terry Pratchett wrote:The trouble with having an open mind, of course, is that people will insist on coming along and trying to put things in it.

Click for a Limerick
OrangeEyebrows wrote:There once was a guy, Aviel,
whose arguments no one could quell.
He tested with Turing,
his circuits fried during,
and now we'll have peace for a spell.
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