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Some questions you may be asked at your first meeting with a rabbi:
- What has been your spiritual journey?
- Where you raised in a religion? What are your feelings towards it?
- What draws you to Judaism?
- What research have you done on your own already?
- Do you have Jewish friends or family members? Have you talked to them or experienced any Jewish rituals with them?
- Have you attended services or any other Jewish events?
- Have you been to other synagogues? What made you choose this one/this denomination?
- Have you told your friends or family members that you’re interested in converting?
- Do you live nearby? Do you have the time/means to visit the synagogue for services, classes, holidays, etc?
Now, this is not a pop quiz. You don’t need to answer positively to every question, or even know the answer to every question, and your rabbi probably won’t ask you all of them at once. But these are some things that might come up, to help your rabbi understand where you are and where you’re trying to go.
I recommend at least walking into the meeting having:
- read up on the conversion process
- learned the difference between different Jewish denominations and looked at the websites of other synagogues in the area (if any)
- chosen 2-4 concrete things about Judaism that interest you and that you can summarize briefly
- come up with a (brief) statement about your religious upbringing. in my experience, this can be the most awkward part, especially if you had a very painful experience; my advice is to just be honest about how you felt, even if you don’t want to go into detail about what exactly you experienced, and hopefully your rabbi will recognize that and understand if you don’t want to spill the whole story to a relative stranger at that point.
Above all, remember that converting to Judaism is a journey. It can be a very long one, and you’re just starting out, so it’s okay to be anxious or excited or impatient or a daunting combination of all three. Your rabbi became a rabbi because they’re really passionate about Judaism, and they won’t look down on you for feeling the same way!
This feels like an appropriate follow-up to recent questions, so here y’all go!
Have you seen the Boondocks episode about R. Kelly. The issue with Gal Gadot is a lot like that! There's a lot of racism in the world and the US is still plagued by that kind of shit everyday, but being Jewish doesn't make her support of genocidal and imperialistic institutions tolerable.
Alright, sunshine, I’m going to copy and paste something that I’ve already written for you, since apparently you don’t get it.
Why do antisemites like you hate Gal Gadot? Let’s have some greater context here, because this all started when Gadot came up with this quote that was deemed so offensive:
So, okay, we’ll break it down together. Really analyse it. Work out where the people like you that hate Gal Gadot have found their ammunition.
“I am sending my love and prayers to my fellow Israeli citizens.”
She sent love and prayers to “Israeli citizens.” Not politicians, not “Israeli Jews,” but all ordinary people who are Israeli and live in Israel. All of the Israeli citizens. Did you know that 20.8% of Israel’s population are Arabs, and another 4.4% are non-Arab Christians, Baha’i and other non-Jews? You do now! And because Gadot is talking to “fellow Israeli citizens,” she’s talking to them, too! Amazing!
“Especially to all the boys and girls who are risking their lives protecting my country against the horrific acts conducted by Hamas […]”
Here’s her extra love to the IDF soldiers. But there’s a catch: she specifically says that she was sending “love and prayers” to the people protecting Israel against Hamas. Hamas, the terrorist organisation that wants to murder all Jews. (It says that, quite clearly, in their Covenant.) There’s no mention of Palestinians. No mention of the West Bank or Gaza Strip. No mention of “one people is better than another.” No demonisation of Palestinians. No claim that all Palestinians are evil or terrorists. All that she says is that Hamas are bad, nothing else.
“[…] who are hiding like cowards behind women and children […]”
She claims that Hamas use human shields. Is that true? Well, yes it is. Even the UN has admitted that Hamas has used their schools in Gaza to store their weapons – which is a direct example of using children as human shields. So, she’s not wrong.
“We shall overcome!”
Since this post has been about Hamas, she’s saying, essentially, that Israel shall overcome Hamas’ horrific acts.
“Shabbat Shalom!”
The photo that she posted is clearly of her lighting the Shabbat candles with her daughter, as she’s Jewish.
“#weareright”
She believes that Israel is in the right against Hamas, as Hamas is what she’s talking about.
“#freegazafromhamas”
This is more proof of context. This is all about how much she despises Hamas, not Palestinians in general, with no mention of the West Bank at all.
“#stopterror”
Surely, this is a good thing. Terrorism is always bad.
“#coexistance [sic]”
This is Gal Gadot’s only mention of general Palestinians in the quote above. “Coexistence” instead of terror. Again, a good thing. She doesn’t demonise Palestinians. She’s angry at Hamas.
“#loveidf”
This is her supporting the IDF in their duties. In context, it’s all about how she supports the IDF in their struggle against Hamas, and obviously how proud she is of their work against terrorism.
Broken down, it’s not an evil sentiment. It’s not a racist statement. It’s about supporting the IDF against Hamas – and everyone in their right mind, even the worst of antisemites, should be against Hamas for all of their evils. Pro-Palestinians should be against Hamas for what they’re doing to their own people.
The lie, as shown above, is then spun that because Gal Gadot was drafted, she must be a murderer.
Instead, during an interview talking about whether she was “too slim” to play Wonder Woman, she said:
“My mom is a gymnastics teacher. So growing up I was never sitting watching TV in the afternoons. I always played ball outside in the backyard. I was a dancer for 12 years. I did tennis, basketball, volleyball, dodgeball, you name it.” […] “[In the IDF] I was a gym trainer on one of the bases in Israel. So my boot camp was longer than other boot camps. It was four months and all about sports, waking up at 6:30 a.m. and going for a run, doing push-ups…”
Ga Gadot never saw any action. She was stationed at a base, in Israel, as a “gym trainer.”
The reaction of hatred towards Gal Gadot is a perfect example of antisemitism that isn’t even thinly veiled as “anti-Zionism.”
From the facts, an Israeli woman drafted into her national army and ended up as a gym instructor, nothing else, then shows that she’s anti-Hamas, has been warped and manipulated into blatant lies and hatred.
But let’s get back to what you’ve actually said about Gadot’s “support of genocidal and imperialistic institutions.”
Genocidal and imperalistic institutions, huh?
Well, let’s start with your “genocidal” lie. Even Ma’an, a news source that absolutely despises Israel and spreads libel literally all the time, has admitted that the Palestinian population has grown to eight times the size of was back in 1948. Israel sure does suck at “genocide,” considering this must be the only “genocide” in history that manages to have a population increase. It’s pretty sad for you that even antisemitic news outlets can’t even hold onto that lie forever, can they?
“Imperialistic.”
You mean like the “imperialism” of the Palestinian leadership that’s pushed to have the holiest sites in Judaism in Israel reclassed as “Islamic”? How it’s seen as an “act of aggression” for Jews to do nothing but pray at the Western Wall or visit the Temple Mount? The way that the Palestinian leadership celebrates every Jew murdered by terrorists and indoctrinates children towards terrorism and antisemitism?
How is it “imperialistic” for Jews to have self-determination in our own homeland, exactly?
I love how people like you come in, with absolutely no knowledge of what’s happened, to make snap judgements to hate us. Did you know, for example, that over half of Jews in Israel are Mizrahi? You know, Jews that were ethnically cleansed from Arab countries? Did you know that Israel houses about 43% of the world’s Jews, too? So, what, you want those Jews to… huh, live under Arab rule again, the same rule that has been massacring Jews for centuries and demonising us thanks to Islamic fundamentalism? Yeah? We’re just supposed to bow down to you and give in to actual oppression? Because no, thanks to actual oppression from pogroms, ethnic cleansing and the Holocaust, we’re not putting up with that any more. We’re not just going to lie down and die and then feel grateful when people like you can pretend to care when you cry over “dead Jew porn” like Schindler’s List and Holocaust-related films, then turn around and say, “Why can’t you just shut up and deal with antisemitism”?
What’s that? Oh, nothing, just a Palestinian Authority official at the unveiling of a monument celebrating a terrorist who murdered 15 Israelis.
What’s she proud of? Nothing much, just a terrorist that broke into a house to murder a 13 year old girl.
All this, all of this, because Gal Gadot just wants her country and her people to be safe. Caring about your country doesn’t mean supporting everything that the government does.
But what, you’re from the US, I’m presuming?
You better not want your friends or family or anyone that you care about to be safe in the US, you genocial, racist, imperialism supporter. Unless you’ve forgotten about the Native Americans.
But, nah, I guess that doesn’t matter and that doesn’t count, because here you are attacking a Jew for not wanting her fellow citizens to die, and Jews don’t matter to the likes of you.
You, you antisemitic, sanctimonious and hypocritical piece of garbage, can show yourself out.
If you hate Israel then I hope you also hate Iran, Iraq, Syria, Egypt, and Yemen cuz there wouldn’t be such a need for Israel if those countries didn’t drive out/kill their huge Jewish populations.
*cough cough* Jews are a marginalized people who deserve the same respect as other marginalized people in social justice circles *cough cough*
Friendly reminder that I am Jewish, I am very proud to be Jewish, and I refuse to make myself any less Jewish for anybody’s comfort.
Nonetheless, we did some digging and found several Yiddish shorts and full-length films that you can stream on YouTube. These films are especially useful for Yiddish-language learners looking to sharpen their ears for the various dialects, as each makes use of a different variant of Yiddish. All feature English subtitles.
For more Yiddish content, subscribe to the בית שלום עליכם BethShalomAleichem YouTube channel.
I see plenty of folks who move from anarchism to Leninism or something else over time. And when they explain themselves, it always seems as though they never had a clear sense of anarchism to begin with.
One reason is that we focus way too much on anti-statism. But the anarchist community as a whole has been giving attention to other hierarchies for decades now. None of us think the abolition of the state alone will solve every problem, even though it’s still important. We target the principle of authority and the absolute; the state is significant, but it’s not the only authority out there
A related reason is pragmatism. The state is a powerful entity and anarchists wholesale rejecting the use of state power only shoot themselves in the foot. This usually implies we have a moral or emotional aversion to the state. While I’m sure that plays a role, anarchists have always considered the state inefficient and generally unresponsive to people’s needs. And that goes deeper into the principle of authority — whether individuals, groups, or institutions are somehow incapable of doing bad and therefore deserve the right to command others. If the authorities fuck up, it’s much harder to address their fuckups without screaming at them from below or hoping a higher authority steps in. We just set ourselves up for failure.
Anarchy leaves infinite room for people to address problems how they like, without waiting for permission. That can apply to anything, whether it’s dealing with an asshole in your community, responding to a shortage, or laying down revolutionary terror. It’s not as cumbersome as taking orders no matter what.
I wonder how many of these folks adopt anarchism because they love the idea or because they don’t want to deal with state socialism’s reputation.
Rabbi Jill Jacobs
A pro-Trump page shares a photo of communist Spanish Civil War revolutionaries. Either they got excited because they saw the word “republican” in the titles, they saw women with guns, or there’s a serious troll on Deplorables for Trump.
Some of the important bits:
When Zev Shofar, a 14-year-old from Takoma Park, started going to Jewish summer camp seven years ago, the children all learned the Hebrew words to introduce themselves. “Chanich” means a male camper; “chanichah” means a female camper.
But what if Zev didn’t feel male or female — neither a chanich nor a chanichah?
Zev’s camp didn’t have a word that worked for Zev. In fact, the Hebrew language doesn’t have any words. Like many other languages — Spanish, French and Russian, for example — Hebrew assigns each noun a gender.
In Israel, or anywhere else that Hebrew is spoken, there’s no linguistic solution, either. But now there is at camp. Zev is a chanichol.
The seven Habonim Dror camps, spread across North America, are pioneering a new gender-neutral form of Hebrew this summer. They hope to set an example that Hebrew-speakers worldwide might someday follow.
…
Those cheers have had to be rewritten this summer to fit the new gender-neutral Hebrew. Plural masculine nouns in Hebrew — including any group of people that includes at least one man — typically end in im, while feminine nouns end in ot. At Camp Moshava, all groups of both boys and girls now end in a blend: imot.
…
In Israel, some LGBT communities have adopted the –imot plural, but few seem to have decided on a non-binary singular.
…
So Habonim Dror decided on its own that –ol would be its singular non-binary ending, based on the word kol, which means “all.”
So… ?אני אישל
אני אישל 😊😊
being jewish is about being gay for g-d
At the heart of anti-capitalism...
Is the moral realization that no human being should starve so that another human being may be rich.
This is the future unaccountable plutocrats who control the means of production want