Jonathan Sarna American Judaism Summary

Sitting in a comfortable leather chair on a cloudy January day, I sat in a house and interviewed Susan Gustavson, a life long Jew that is in her mid-fifties. She is a graduate of UC Berkeley and Columbia University, where she got an MBA in marketing. She told me about her opinions on the Judaism.

Rebecca Samuel’s letters provide interesting insight into what is was like to be a Jewish American woman in the emerging United States. Her letters provide some evidence to struggles many Jews faced trying to observe their religion, as well as the tension of merging American practices with Jewish identity.

Throughout the 1800’s to the mid-1900’s one problem restricted and threatened the Jewish race. Through trials, battles, immigration, and more the jews couldn’t catch a break. They were a despised people suffering due to an inability of the Jewish people to fully assimilate into other societies. This issue highlighted the political and cultural atmosphere and events throughout the time periods we studied. From beneath all the destruction and chaos occurring during this time period lies an important message.

There was a sense of community rather than a religious longing and yearning to return to Palestine. Reform Jews were considered to be more of a social gain than a religious cult, some even saw the Reform movement as bringing Judaism ‘up to date’. It is difficult to determine the type of Judaism represented in Falsettoland as no explicit references are made, however, throughout the course of this paper, the use of features of both traditional Orthodox Judaism and Reform Judaism suggest that Falsettoland depicts a hybrid of the two. Judaism in America began growing in the 1830s when the Jews of Germany began to arrive on American soil. An important factor in the Jewish immigration is that these Jews were either Reform Jews or were secular Jews who had, for whatever reason, dropped Judaism altogether.

What does Cahill want you to think when reading this book? Perhaps he wants you to empathize with the Jews and see how their life style set the pathway for the next religions to come. After reading this monograph it is quick to assume that Cahill is pushing his own views on to the reader. The books intentions are up to the readers interpretations. This paper will further analyze Cahills connotations and how readers could analyze this book with their own expectations.

Having the privilege to serve in the military has allowed this writer the opportunity to be exposed to the pluralistic society in a way which has exposed him to the beauty of the diversity enjoyed in American culture. One aspect of said diversity is the interaction which has taken place amongst the Christian and various world religions who also wear the same uniform in defense of America. It was the pleasure of the writer to attend a local synagogue in which his Jewish brothers and sisters welcomed him with open arms. The local congregation of Jewish believers went out of their way in order to ensure their newest visitor understood the flow of service and the significance of the ritual which took place on the first Shabbat or Sabbath of the month. The following essay will serve to detail the worship experience as well as how it and other beliefs of Judaism compare/contrast with the Christian faith.

Levine’s book titled The Misunderstood Jew: The Church and the Scandal of the Jewish Jesus proves to be a highly informative resource when trying to understand the intricate relationship between Christianity and Judaism. Levine’s primary objective seems to be a desire to address the idea that there is a vast, irreconcilable disparity between the beliefs and practices of Christians and Jews. Levine’s central argument focuses upon a common misperception of this dissimilarity: it is the result of Jesus being in direct opposition to Judaism. Furthermore, she contends that only a decided openness and interfaith dialogue between Christianity and Judaism can truly provide the most complete and compelling portrait of Jesus’s life and work. To me, the most edifying facet of Levine’s argument was her call to anchor Jesus within the historical and cultural context in which he was teaching in order to best understand his work and his message. Levine not only provides support for this idea throughout The Misunderstood Jew, but near the end of the novel also offers up ways in which both Christians and Jews can reconcile these two ostensibly conflicting perceptions of Jesus. Therefore, in this essay, I will analyze Levine’s arguments regarding the importance of historical/cultural context in Chapter One and Chapter Four while synthesizing it with her solutions presented in Chapter Seven.

In this reflection paper I will be reflecting on the Jewish Americans making America their home and Americans response to the Holocaust. I will first address how the Jewish Americans emigrated from other nations into the United States. Once they got here what they had to do to become Americans but also keeping their Jewish identity visible. I will then talk about the Americans Response to the Holocaust and supply information about Jews in the Holocaust also including my thoughts on the Holocaust by ending in my conclusion. The reason for immigrating to America is the endless opportunities and immense freedom.

The American Civil War was, with the exception of the presence of Loyalists during the American Revolution, the only time in American history that neighbor turned against neighbor in both widespread physical violence and enmity of the heart. This was true of the entire nation, but even more so of American Jewry. American Jewry was a very small percentage of the American population at the start of the war in 1861. During the conflict it was forced to confront its own differences during the Civil War; the politics, policies and emotions of the war acting as a great revealer which exposed the fractured unity of the tiny ethno-religious group in America. While the war exposed this fracturing, it simultaneously exposed the commonalities that American

Since the beginning of the Judaism, the Jewish people have been subject to hardships and discrimination. They have not been allowed to have a stabile place of worship and have also faced persecution and atrocities that most of us can not even imagine. Three events that have had a big impact on the Jewish faith were the building and destruction of the First Great Temple, the Second Great Temple and the events of the Holocaust. In this paper, I will discuss these three events and also explain and give examples as to why I feel that the Jewish people have always been discriminated against and not allowed the freedom of worship.

In his book Creating Judaism: History, Tradition, Practice, Michael Satlow states that “Judaism’s diversity is easier to explain than its unity” (Satlow 2006: 7). Since the Biblical Period, when Christianity positioned itself against Judaism thus solidifying its stance as a separate institution, Judaism has taken on many forms. From the atheist Jew living in California to the Ethiopian Jews of the 19th and 20th century, there is not one, essentialist definition of Judaism that covers all of its nooks and crannies. Satlow attempts to map out a polythetical definition of Judaism, one that can potentially account for all individuals that self-identify as Jewish, despite their practices and beliefs. The three ‘maps’, or categories, that he uses

The beginning of the 1960’s for American Jewry showed no difference in motivation than the previous decade. The choices made over the next two decades accurately convey a path for the emergence of two types of Jews in America. In a New York Times article written in 1962, Rabbi Rosenblum expresses his concern for Jews during this time. He says, “What we Jews wants is what others desire, just to be let alone to enjoy life liberty, and happiness along with our neighbors.” It marked a point of realization that if Jews uniformly wanted to assimilate without conflict, this could be achieved. The question however still remained whether this could be done while also retaining a Jewish identity. If the choices of the fifties did not offer much foresight into this question, the decisions of the sixties and seventies solidify this concern when “American Jews saw the sixties open with a promise of

Judaism has great significance in our religions and history today. It’s interesting how each little thing can have such an important role in a whole religion. In conclusion, Jewish beliefs, customs, holidays, symbols, history, and the holocaust all play a crucial role in making Jews who they are

Hasidic Judaism is a branch of Orthodox Judaism established in Eastern Europe during the 1800’s that put spirituality and a connection with God through mysticism at the forefront of its beliefs. In order to understand Hasidic Judaism, one must understand that Judaism is not only a religion; it is also a philosophy and a way of life for the Jewish people. One of the oldest monotheistic religions, Judaism has evolved over the years since the time of the founding fathers. Like any culture or religion, however, Jews have never been without conflict or disagreement amongst its people. Schisms amongst Jews over long periods of time have led to a branching out of sects and Jewish institutions. What led to the separation of denominations within

Have you ever noticed that when people talk of Jews, at least in a protestant church, that the Israelite legalism, rituals, dress and hair standards are the first things to mind? The topic of Judaism may come with stereotypical opinions and “Christian Judgement” that are without merit or understanding. Judaism, by a Christian worldview, had to change after Pentecost, since the animal sacrifice to atone for sin Christ completed on the Cross. However, Judaism does not accept this truth of Christ and His work on the cross, but Judaism remains in the world. So, what was this change in Judaism and when did it take place? There have been numerous fluctuations within Judaism, only the theme constructed in this essay has its foundations around the most important facet of Judaism- the Temple. With the Temple in the forefront of this essay, we will discuss the modifications that Judaism went through, at what time, different perspectives that the destruction of the Temple had, and how the Christian sect views these vagaries. The Temple destruction of A.D. 70 converted the Jewish faith in its singular fashion, while, at the same point, the Jewish faith never had a total change by always changing throughout time.