Conformity and Rebellion in Conversion of the Jews Though it seems like a stereotype, all teenagers, at some point, choose to rebel against authority figures or conform with their friends. Part of growing up means becoming the person God intends you to be and finding out how to survive, or be independent, on your own. Conformity and rebellion, two issues that each human being has experienced, have great effects not only on the conformist and rebel, but on the people around them as well. In “Conversion of the Jews,” Ozzie rebels against the religious complacency that he sees in his Hebrew school, and his friend, Itzie, projects an example of religious complacency and conformity. Ozzie, a …show more content…
When Ozzie is on the roof, his own form of rebellion affects his mother and the rabbi greatly. His mother feels ashamed and confused. The rabbi feels more worried about how Ozzie’s actions make the church look. Yakov Blotnik, the janitor, categorizes all events into two pools: “things were either good-for-the-Jews or no-good-for-the-Jews” (1107). An old man who has memorized all his prayers and forgotten about God, he sees Ozzie’s demonstration as not so bad; however, Yakov knows that “the boy had to come down immediately, before anybody saw” (1107).
Calling the fire department did the deliberate opposite of what
Yakov and Rabbi Binder wanted. It drew more attention to the rebellious boy. This boy’s rebellion affected many people. It upset his mother, embarrassed his religious figure, confused an old! man, and caused his peers to, yet again, conform to something they know nothing about. Ozzie’s mother sees his display as martyrdom. When they hear her say “don’t be a martyr,” they start a cheer of their own. Ozzie hears them from the rooftop,
“’Be a Martin, be a Martin,’ and all the voices joined in singing for Martindom, whatever it was” (1110).
Ozzie desires answers to his questions. Without spiritual questioning, one’s religious beliefs hold no importance.
Ozzie’s faith has no backbone. He does not realize his Judaism comes from his mother and that he
Intro: This book is about a Jewish boy named Yanek. This gives an inside look of what happened to Jewish people in the 1940s. He had a very hard life in the 6 year time duration he spent in the ghetto and concentration camps.
As the war dwindled down, the Bilecki family lingered to their Polish home. Though they were rich in heart, the friction between the slips of tinted cash and the jangling of the metal coins were the only sound that seemed to be worth hearing. Sadly, for them there was a lack of it. The Jews that they saved acted as their guardian angel, as the Bilecki clan did for them. From all around the world, across the sea, the Jews kept them from malnutrition and naked chills. It wasn’t until 1998 that the secret of the Bilecki kindness was unveiled. Not only did they get the recognition they deserve, the Jewish Foundation for the Righteous had planned an infinitesimal surprise. Waiting, as the sounds of aircrafts roared, stood five of the survivors the Bilecki family had guided to asylum. The vulnerability of the raw moment was exposed as they shared their tears. The applause throbbed emphatically like the robust flapping of an angel’s wings. Their life saving feat did not go unacknowledged by the Righteous Among the Nations. Their unselfish deeds of valor and grace set themselves into being heroes.
- Desire for more. once sonya sees something better, she can't live with the old. While Russian Jews historically didn't have much, Sonya was the opposite. Like a child seeing the latest toy. Assimilation manifests itself as promises of bountifulness
To begin, in the book Night, the Jews were being judged because of the way they looked, the religion they followed, and their ethnicity. Moishe the Beadle was deported because he was a foreign Jew. Rumors were spreading about Nazis coming into towns and taking over. After some Jews were deported, life became normal again. Everyone was doing everyday activities. “The deportees were quickly forgotten. A few days after they left, it was rumored that they were in Galicia, working, and even that they were content with their fate. Days went by. Then weeks and months. Life was normal again. A calm, reassuring wind blew through our homes. The shopkeepers were doing good business, the students lived among their books, and the children played in the streets. One day, as I was about to enter the synagogue, I saw Moishe the Beadle sitting
The book begins with the author’s Jewish community witnessing a different community being taken away by the hungarian police. “Crammed into cattle cars by the hungarian police, they cried silently. Standing on the station platform, we too were left crying. The train disappearded over the horizon. Hehind me, someone sighed, ‘What do you expect? That’s war…’ The depotees were quickly forgotten. Days went by and life was normal agian”(6). This quote demonstates how fast people are willing to move on and ignore obvious signs of their own oppression. If someone ignores something for long enough, it could eventualy turn into somehting horrible like the
In Simon’s mind, ongoing activities woke up an abandoned pain from the past. While walking in the streets with the group of fifty imprisoned men, Simon confronted Sapiehy Street. Author met the “day without Jews (Wiesenthal,19),” which implied that no Jew students should have been in this street during these days, once again. As Wiesenthal painfully emphasizes, the courageous Jews, who had appeared on this street during these
Over two hundred Jews were now assembled in the woods. Upon first glimpse people remembered it as “a dream” The war was still looming in the background but now with people a small resistance with the same character of duty to others, could make a huge
The main change being dealt with is violent Anti-Semitism. Varian Fry and his followers cope with this dynamic political change by fighting it in a clandestine manner. Fry and his team run a rescue network: creating fake documents and helping approximately two thousand to four thousand Jewish and Anti-Nazi refugees escape to safety. His methods of coping were bold and risky, often putting his life, and the lives of others, on the line. Fry’s actions prove that if a change, cultural or political, is unfavorable to the individual, they will stop at nothing to reverse
Early modern Jewish history is filled with depth and knowledge that captivated and cultivated the religion into what it would become. An important part of the history were the ideologies and philosophies of Moses Mendelssohn. Considered the first modern Jewish philosopher and a shaper of Judaism, Mendelssohn was the start of what would become the Jewish Enlightenment. Being the first person to translate the Bible from Hebrew to German, he opened up the door for Jews to rediscover and enhance their knowledge. A writer and philosopher, several of Mendelssohn's writings were highly successful and considered a herald to a new way of thinking. While many of his writings received praise from people of different parts, critiques arose, including
One of the first and most important themes that came across the book was when Mosihe the Beadle returned from Passover in Budapest. He brought back with him news that the Germans had taken over with the Hungarian Governments approval. That take over was accompanied by the chilling news that “Anti-Semitic acts take place every day, in the streets, on the trains. The Fascist attack Jewish stores, synagogues. The Situation is becoming very serious…” (Wiesels 9). While Mosihe tried to warn his friends and fellow citizens, they mistook him for being just a crazy old fool and he soon became a laughing stock. However, “in less than three days, German Army vehicles made their appearance on our streets” (Wiesels 9). The image of an enemy army rolling through one’s home streets seemed impossible as well as a laughing matter to people of Mosihe community. The community’s denial to Mosihe’s claims sends the message to the reader to not tread lightly on the problems of today. Global warming, global financial collapse, or in extreme cases a third world war, all of these events seem like laughing matters to most of the population today, but very few people, like Mosihe the Beadle, see these unfolding before them, and do their best to warn their fellow people all while being completely
Despite years of evolution in human culture, the ideal of conformity has succeeded numerous changes of human ideology. To conform means to set aside your own moral beliefs and join the group that would benefit your self the most, or at least that is what author, Arthur Miller, suggests in The Crucible. Throughout the book, characters are faced with the dilemma of conforming or rebelling, a predicament that tests their morality against their will to avoid punishment and shame. In The Crucible, Miller suggests that the decision to conform or to rebel truly displays the morality and selflessness within the characters in the book.
In the story The Boy in The Striped Pajamas by John Boyne, there are many consequences when society allows persecution of others. Some of those consequences are that children (Gretel and Bruno) learn plenty of bad morals, the fact that some people live large while others poorly, and that many people are separated from their families. This will explain more in-depth about each consequence.
Humans have a natural tendency to conform to each other; they strive to fit in with their community and to blend in with the crowd, undoubtedly because modern society seems to have put everyone on a leash. Its harsh judgment and constant pressure forces everyone to follow each other around like sheep — compliant — staying in line in fear of the repercussions. Likewise, in The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Crucible by Arthur Miller, and “Letter from Birmingham Jail” by Martin Luther King Jr., conformity is an ongoing theme that causes the entire community to isolate Hester in The Scarlet Letter, believe in witchcraft in The Crucible, and discriminate against African Americans in “Letter from Birmingham Jail”. Hawthorne, Miller, and King all show the effects of the pressure and corruptions in the community, as well as the punishments the individuals receive as a result of conformity. In all three pieces of writing, the authors describe the community as a powerful oppression that forces people to be obedient, simultaneously asserting that conformity ultimately leads to consequences in both the community and the individual.
Throughout the history of the world, the Jewish people have been persecuted and oppressed because of their religious beliefs and faith. Many groups of people have made Jews their scapegoat. Jews have suffered from years of intolerance because people have not understood what the religion really means. They do not understand where and why the religion began, nor the customs of it's people. For one to understand the great hardships, triumphs, and history of the Jewish people one must open-mindedly peruse a greater knowledge of the Jewish people and faith.
There are many themes to this novel such as criminality, courage, and love. But the most important theme is identity. In this novel, during World War 2, identity plays a huge role if one was Jewish. In order to stay alive, a Jew has to stay hidden. A wrong move can result in the death of one’s self or death of loved ones. one should not be hated for who they are, or in this case what religion one is. God made everybody different and unique in their own way. We don't have to be all alike, we can stand out. This is where courage takes place. One must have the courage to be who they are no matter if they're hated or not.