#Reform Judaism

[ellaeved]

[emotboyswag]

Closet antisemites/racists love bringing up that the swastika is a Buddhist peace symbol (as if they give a shit about buddhism) like yeah it is but the skinhead white guy with a swastika tattoo isn't a Buddhist and the edgy teenagers who painted a swastika on a wall aren't Buddhists and you need to use the tiniest dash of critical thinking and common sense.

In a Buddhist temple its a peace symbol, scratched on some guys house its a hate symbol . And stop telling Jews they are being dramatic or chronically online for being upset/disturbed/scared or annoyed by swastikas!!

[feygaleh]

tu bishvat is tonight/tomorrow so just a reminder to everyone that if you use generative AI, chatgpt, and similar programs you are the direct cause of energy waste and deforestation. plant a tree, draw shit yourself, and for the love of hashem learn how to google things

[glitzy-dynamite]

Well it’s time for the most important post, and I hope y’all will support me.

Might be surprising for everyone here - but I’m not Jewish. My great grandfather was an American Jew, but he married an Armenian woman, thus I’m just a 4th generation. I was reblogging Jewish things in a neutral way, as an ally.

But today is a day when I finally decided that yes, I’m going to convert to Judaism.

I’m learning, and when I will feel like I’m ready, I will go to the local Reform Judaism community for an actual learning and conversion.

So, please! If your blog is about (Reform) Judaism, or you’re converting/thinking about conversion, feel free to comment/reblog so I can follow you, or share your favorite blogs with me!

I hope we will be friends. ✡️

[the-catboy-minyan]

due to a certain asshole spewing bullshit in spacelazarwolf's notes, I wanna emphasize something:

YOU DON'T HAVE TO KNOW HEBREW TO BE JEWISH

YOU DON'T HAVE TO LEARN HEBREW TO BE JEWISH

YOU DON'T HAVE TO WANT TO LEARN HEBREW TO BE JEWISH

the only thing you need to be Jewish is to be Jewish. a Jew is a Jew.

(this message does not include messianic jews)

[my-jewish-life]

We all need to take a break from social media with everything going on atm, stay safe everyone✨️

Credit to sefiracreative ✨️

[unsolicited-opinions]

[askjumblr]

so ive been trying out different shuls because of moving and i went to a reform one last shabbat (im usually conservative

is editing everything that mentions jews being different from other people or zionism normal for reform siddours? can someone help me understand the reasoning? to my eyes it had seemed odd vibes/like we were self censoring and policing the stuff the goyim didn't like. why add stuff in about the validity of other people's gods?

Please only polite answers with a FoR reform. No clowning on this post please.

[prickly-porcupine-memes]

Content notes for gentiles:

It is never, under any circumstances, in any Jewish community, okay to beat up a Christian for their beliefs. These memes do not suggest or promote that practice. These memes are about the way that none of the extraordinarily diverse Jewish organzations and communities in the world today recognize the practices of Jews for Jesus or Messianic "Jews' as Judaism. These are Christian communities/organizations which exist for the evangelical purpose of converting Jews (which we find offensive for reasons which are obvious if you know anything about Jewish history), and they are practicing Christianity in Jewish drag while appropriating, mangling, and misrepresenting our heritage and culture. If the topic interests you, you can learn more here. Or here. Or here. Christians should know that the fastest way to lose a Jewish friend is to try to "share the gospel" with them.

(If you want to discuss the synoptic gospels with a Jew, though, please feel free to contact me. I find Christian theology really interesting. Understanding the Jewish context of the synoptic gospels can shed a lot of light on Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Try reading Episcopal Bishop John Shelby Spong on this topic.)

These memes also exaggerate, for comic effect, the style of disagreements between the Orthodox and the Heterodox. Plenty of Orthodox may not feel that Reform Judaism is "real Judaism," but they don't, in my experience, express that position with shouted condemnation.

My parents were raised Masorti. Where I grew up, the only shul was Reform. I understand and appreciate why many Orthodox feel Reform Judaism isn't Judaism for two reasons:

1. In their framing, they're absolutely right. Their position is logically consistent and driven by core beliefs about what defines their Judaism, not contempt.

2. While many Orthodox may say that Reform Judaism is not Judaism, I've never seen an orthodox Jew suggest that Jews participating in Reform communities are not real Jews. I have never felt condemned by any Orthodox Jew, and I have always been made to feel welcome in Orthodox communities. When I've encountered Chabadniks doing kiruv work, they have only ever approached me with an invitation, never a condemnation.

Condemnation is not Jewish. But offering to educate? Extending an invitation for inclusion? Welcoming community? Inviting someone to perform mitzvot together? That's Jewish.

Jews, please do comment if you think I've gotten any of this wrong or if you'd like to elaborate!

[babka-enjoyer]

A YouTube video just dropped explaining the evolution of Jewish "denominations" (movements) from the Bible times until now. It's fairly American-centric once you get to modern time but still useful.

[hifibeatup]

So, funny story: About a month before my Bar Mitzvah, I had a crisis of faith. It suddenly hit me all, at once, that I didn't think there was a God. And seeing as I was about to participate in a ritual confirming my status as a member of said religion, this troubled me greatly.

I went to my rabbi and told him very bluntly, "I don't think I believe any of this." And he very kindly explained to me how there are Jews who see the Torah and our traditions as metaphor, allegory, and guidance in life. How there were many Jews before me in my position, and they were all still part of our community.

Meanwhile, when I told my dad, he said "Well, your grandparents already booked their plane tickets, so you'd better do it anyway."

[hailruth]

Good time of a day!

I'm not Jew or Jewish, but I genuinely want to learn more about Judaism and Jewish culture. I recently found out about kosher clothes for girls who are 13 and higher (that the clothes must cover the elbows, etc) and wanted to know: are these rules strictly followed by Jewish girls in reality? Is it voluntary? Do secular Jews obey it?

I'd be glad if you answered these questions! Have a great day! Wish you all the best!

so, first things first, you will never be able to say that every single member of one ethnicity, religion, race, country, etc. definitively does one particular thing. so, something like how one dresses will not be universal among any group, including jews. the idea of how one should dress is also very broad; a simple yes or no answer is impossible to give on this topic. i am not a rabbi nor extremely educated on these ideas, so keep an eye out on the comments/reblogs from people who can provide more insight. also, keep in mind that i'm typing this on mobile while waiting at a gate for a flight.

there is an extremely large amount of secular jews out there and just as many religious jews who do not follow the laws of צניעות (tznius/tznuit, "modesty"). even then, how tznius is defined varies between communities (it is largely shaped by the minhag hamakom, the "custom of the place"). it also varies between streams of judaism. for example, the reform movement does not require a certain kind of dress (this does not mean that there aren't reform jews who choose to dress modestly / according to tznius), while orthodox and conservative movements will have guidelines. those are not all the branches of judaism, but they are the "big three." even within orthodoxy, which is probably what you're thinking of when you talk about "kosher clothes," there are many different ways in which people follow tznius.

there seem to be a few other misconceptions that you are approaching the topic with, so i would like to correct them.

tznius is absolutely not gender-specific (as in, only for women). modesty applies to every jew, regardless of gender. there are requirements for both men and women. there are, additionally, very interesting discussions among jews who are not cisgender or are gender nonconforming and how they interact with tznius. i do not have a personal gender identity but choose to practice judaism according to the laws given to women, and that is the only way in which i identify with any gender at all.

i am not completely sure where the "13 and higher" idea comes from. i am not educated on every single movement, but within orthodoxy, parents who choose to dress according to tznius generally start their children much earlier than that (anywhere from 2-6 years old, this is also dependent on minhag, but often is thought to only start once the child can understand the concept). there *could* be some communities that instead do this at the age of 13, but not that i personally know of. there is no strict answer as to exactly when children should begin dressing modestly.

like i said before, the idea of exactly what is modest is different between communities. modern orthodox and conservative movements, for example, follow tznius but do not always believe that this includes the need to cover elbows, according to the example you gave. as another example, not all orthodox jewish women wear strictly skirts, modern orthodox women often wear pants.

now onto your specific questions.

are these rules strictly followed by jewish girls in reality? i have largely answered this already, but to reiterate, there is no one mode of dress which you can assign to the whole of judaism or jewish women. but there are many who do follow these rules. i am an example of someone who is working towards having a modest wardrobe. in synagogue, i cover my collarbones and elbows, i also wear long skirts that are mid-calf length at the shortest. once i am married that will most likely be the entirety of my closet, though i am still personally working through whether or not i will continue to wear pants. as you can see, it is a very personal journey as clothing is so central to one's identity and mode of self-expression.

is it voluntary? again, it is impossible to give a universal answer to this question. i already have a multi-paragraph response in my mind to this, but i don't think i will get into the complexities of cultural expectations, societal norms, religious thought, and intracommunity disagreements. ideally, hopefully, and in the best scenarios, one will never, ever be forced to dress in a way that they do not want. but the world we live in is far more complex than that. however, most people who follow these laws do so because they believe in them deeply.

do secular jews obey it? well, again, this isn't a yes/no question. if they are secular, though, they definitely aren't doing it for religious reasons. i know of many jewish movements that adopt jewish forms of dress as cultural markers (such as women who cover their hair as a symbol of judaism, even if they aren't married). it's simply more comfortable and freeing for some to be more covered up, too. the reasons are endless and always personal. while most secular jews one meets probably do not choose to follow jewish modesty, there are absolutely those who do.

i hope these answers suffice. i would greatly appreciate it if any jews could share their personal beliefs and habits when it comes to how you dress. it would be most helpful for the asker to see the immense variation among movements, communities, and individuals.

[spale-vosver]

Sure, you changed the gendered language about HaShem in this handout, but are the girls in your synagogue studying Torah?

[feygaleh]

hi jewish allies pls ignore the miserable jews throwing a fit about “oh NOW you care about antisemitism” bc you were pro-palestine. thank you for being mad with us about musks seig heil. thank you for supporting palestine. and thank you for caring about us during such an antisemitic period in america

[sefardimjew]

Being Jewish is destiny and a blessing, but it's also damn challenging, I mean a lot...

[ellaeved]