Creative Writing: Being The Outsiders

One day, cutting through the swamp, David comes across the remains of old Indian souls and discovers a skull with jewelry still buried on the bodies. As David kicks at the skull, he hears a voice and looks up to see a black man seated on a stump just looking. The man, wearing a black sash around his body, has a soot-stained face, which makes it appear as if he works in some fiery place. David soon recognizes the stranger as the devil, the black man. Twenty years later we had a family reunion with all my relatives and they started talking about the fire.

Sunshine was pouring out from in between the buildings, casting shadows all around Ponyboy and the gang as they walked to Pony’s school. They were taking their time walking down the streets and for the first time they all were really seeing what was all around them. Memories were surfacing in their minds showing them what it all meant to them. With every step they took on the sidewalk they remembered a different memory as if they were walking down memory lane. Ponyboy didn’t think it was possible for him to be walking down this street for the last time as a high school student, but he had gone through the years with great grades that earned him many scholarships.

I comfortably drive my car into the desolate street, Perusing the deserted buildings, Smashes windows and rusted For Sale signs. The car locked up like Fort Knox. I observe the street for trouble. Two young boys look at me from afar as if I'm an alien. Do I stand out that much same greasy hair, expensive clothes, a smart car I suppose I am out of my comfort zone? “Mister, you don’t belong here” his hand gripped his switch. “Pony.... Ponyboy Curtis” I stammer “I live here or at least I did, I'm here to see two-bit’ The Boys turn around “geez his old now” the boy's chirp. The boys stroll away in awe that they saw the great Ponyboy.

"Wake up, partners," the trail boss, James called. I sleepily looked up , shivered, and saw I was the only one not up. "Here," James said, giving me the horses' bridles and saddles. "Take these and get the horses ready. We have a long day today." I groaned in reply and set up the horses for the day's long drag. I was the horse wrangler and this was my everyday job but I still couldn't get use to the idea of waking up before the sun and working. We drove the cattle into open plains against the winter's cold wrath.

The interview portion of this essay comes from a Skokie resident named Daniel Weisz. He attends Temple Beth Israel synagogue in Skokie, Illinois. He has been living in this area for around 20 years now but is originally from England. He is 60 years old and was kind enough to submit to an interview.

Jewhooing the Sixties by David Kaufman is a book that examines the Jewish identity of the Jewish people as a whole based on the Jewish celebrities in America and their effect on popular culture, mainly during the first half of the 1960s. During this time, it was very common for people and especially for Jews to follow the habit of citing Jewish celebrities to which Kaufman refers to the name as “Jewhooing”. This action of jewhooing according to Kaufman “points to a deeper relationship between Jews and celebrity overall.” (1) As Kaufman takes us through this book he shows the reader four different celebrities during this time that stand out above the others which are Sandy Koufax, Lenny Bruce, Bob Dylan, and Barbara Streisand, all of which are Jewish, and the way they became celebrities within an American context, while at the same time remaining identifiable as Jews but in four different ways. This book allowed me to see the Jewish culture and a period that it was very prominent in that I had never known about before based on the Jewish identities of these celebrities.

Katy meets with Gilbert down at the courthouse and sign documents with him and they hand them in to get stamped with photographers and their parents nearby. Their document is stamped with a void and a different document is put in an envelope and passed to Gilbert. He puts it in his pocket and tries to kiss Katy, but she quickly stepped away from him in fear.

On my visit to Adas Israel, I felt safe and welcomed into the Jewish community, even though I am not Jewish myself. Although, being with my Jewish friend may have caused me to not stand out as much, opposed to if I had attended morning prayers alone. Although African Americans comprise certain forms Judaism, majority of them are Black Hebrew Israelites (also called Black Hebrews). Black Hebrews do follow and participate in Jewish rituals. However, they are not considered by the Jewish community as being “Jewish”, unless they have undergone conversion by an official sector of Judaism. While majority of congregation members carried on throughout the service as if I didn’t exist, a few still seemed skeptical of my participation and presence in their sacred

the African Americans used to have to live: In Segregation. The Jewish kids in his neighborhood

City Hall official called the incident “disgusting”. He also stated that municipality has been on alert because of the recent rise in anti-Semitic incidents across the country.

Approximately four hours into their travel, a red firework exploded in the distance and previously concealed bandits emerged from behind boulders, undergrowths and covered pits. They charged with the ferocity of a tidal wave, brandishing weapons and bellowing threats. Aloysius halted his horse, made a signal, and soldiers began to move forward.

The lay people then passed out challah, which is the Jewish Sabbath and holiday bread, and a blessing of the challah took place. The prayer read “Blessed are you, Lord our God, King of the universe, who brings forth bread from the earth” (BBC, 2009). While we enjoyed the challah the chazzan and lay people thanked my friend and I for joining their service and most of all being respectful of their beliefs and rituals. Additionally, they allowed us to ask questions. This is how I was able to discover some issues are in regard to Judaism based off of their perspective. One of the lay people explained that the holocaust still has eternal damage on Jewish people and their culture. With Hitler invading Nazi Germany and separating Jews from one another and others it caused a split in the religion. As reported by Maryles, a writer for Jewish Press, Rabbi Weil declared “a holocaust causes more Jews to be lost from Judaism than the actual holocaust… the great boon to Jews in America is its biggest bane”. Meaning what’s beneficial for one person is a burden to someone else. Another conflict is intermarrying which means when people of various races or religion become connected by marriage. Spouses following different religious paths means they have opposite beliefs which can create afflicting ideals within the marriage. Rabbi Weil also claims, The American ideal of freedom and our widespread acceptance is in fact the double-edged sword that is both helping us and skewering us… the freedom this country offers allows us to shed any semblance of our Judaism”. An additional issue is the religious Jewish youth. A different lay person from the Shabbat service said that the schools are not teaching the Torah the same way it once was taught. Mentioned by Rabbi Zecharya Greenwald, students are being told that if they do not carry themselves a certain way

Robert’s parents are Jewish and Hispanic; his upbringing is a good example of the many successful multicultural households of today. He currently lives in Chesterfield with his wife Tracy and two children. He enjoys everything that our city has to offer a growing family. He is a member of the United Hebrew Congregation, which was the first Jewish congregation to be established in St. Louis, and the oldest west of the Mississippi. With more than 1200 families as members of the congregation, Robert has been given the honor of blowing

"Sometimes you gotta let something bad happen, or else you wont know how to fix things when they go wrong later."

During the 1950s, loyal American leftists resented and resisted demands that they specifically denounce Communism or be presumed fellow travelers. More recently, mainstream African-Americans likewise protested demands that they disassociate themselves from Louis Farrakhan or other controversial figures, with whom they have nothing in common apart from skin color. In 1994, peaceable Jews everywhere were swift to condemn the massacre of 29 praying Palestinians by an Israeli settler named Baruch Goldstein; but they were equally swift to deny, rightly, that Goldstein's demented act had anything to do with Judaism or with themselves.