Personal Narrative: My Visit To The Touro Synagogue

Getting the opportunity to go to St. Louis Catholic Church was a great experience for me, St.Louis Catholic Church is a great, loving, caring place where you will get to learn your faith, I really did enjoy every second. I live in Crystal Beach Texas, but I choose to come to St.Louis Catholic Church because I knew it is such a great church where,I was able to learn my religion. I love my teachers they are very supportive and loving.

On Sunday, November 13, 2016, I visited the Kennedy Road Tabernacle church on 141 Kennedy Rd N, Brampton, ON L6V 1X9 at 8:00 am. This denomination was Christian and I had no experience or background knowledge about Christianity, other than what I have learned in school. I decided to go on a Sunday because I knew many people go on Sundays and it would be a good experience. From my knowledge, Christianity is a monastic religion, that is the belief in one god, and he made things rule over history (Esposito, & Lewis). They also believe that God is higher than everyone, and should not be placed after someone else. They believed that Jesus was born Nazareth in the northern Galilee region on December 25, also the same day as Christmas. Jesus was crucified

The outside of the church is very humble in appearance. It doesn’t look like a place of worship at all from the outside, but the statue of Shinran Shonin in the front makes the building seem particularly important as you pass by. As we ascended the stairs, there was a small garden of flowers surrounding the Shinran Statue, which survived the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. There was a hand painted sign that said “Autumn Festival” hanging from the front fence. The foundation of the church is slightly elevated as well.

Church, temple, sanctuary, or the Lords’s house, these are just a few names that your average person might call the place you come to worship God, I have always called it home. The Church I have been attending, Memorial Baptist Church, which is also where I attend high school, I have been attending since I was the age of three years old. Moving to the area that my family lives in now, I do not believe is any accident. At the age of two years old, my father was stationed in Tennessee for the military. After passing away from brain cancer, my Mother moved my two older sisters and me to Killeen Texas, to be closer to her family. Memorial Baptist Church was the only church we have ever been members of since moving to Texas, it has always felt like

As ridiculous as it may sound as a white male my services are rather well dull and boring so the service I attended was an African American service. Needless to say they are rather vibrant and exuberant. I have a rather long beard but dressed for the occasion with a suit and slicked my hair back to look as professional as possible. Upon walking in I was of course asked why I was there I simply told them that I was wanting to try a different church and I had come across their church. I was informed to sit anywhere I like so I just sat towards the back in the corner as to not draw to much attention to myself and simply take in all the things that they do.

Above the Holy Ark, is the star of David, which is from 1845 and is the oldest representation of the star of David in an architectural building in the country. This is also the location of the Ten Commandments.

In this drawing (Figure 1), the exterior of the building is depicted and once can see what looks to be the portico and steeple. The steeple served as a cupola, or light source, and was an inherently Protestant Church element. This mimicry helped to eliminate any distinction between the Jewish synagogue and the surrounding Christian churches. In fact the steeple is nearly the same neoclassical spire that can be found atop the Saint Michael Episcopal Church built in the 1760’s on Broad Street, Charleston. This was important for the reform Jews who sought to fit in and mark their place with the rest of Charleston’s society, who were majority Christian. Other elements of the synagogue mirrored Charleston’s Protestant churches. Features such as a “Palladian window, a bull's eye window, and quoins” (Waddell 11) in addition to a total of 24 compass-headed windows in double rows which lined all four façades of the synagogue. The building itself was constructed from brick, covered in stucco and then painted over. Situated off of Hasell Street between King St. and Meeting St., the synagogue measured 70 feet long and 40 feet tall at its ridgeline (Ackermann

Though there are several factors that I considered when deciding where to do my fieldwork paper, I chose Beth Israel Synagogue located in Lexington Park, Maryland primarily for accessibility. St. Mary’s County is a rural area with a predominately Christian population. As I begin to search for a congregation with beliefs which differed from my Catholic beliefs, I did not have many options in the immediate area. The nearest Buddhist, Hindu, or Sikh congregations are located in Washington, D.C. and Baltimore; both areas are at least an hour and half drive from my house. Within the Southern Maryland area, there are a few synagogues and Islamic temples. Location limited my choices to the Jewish and Islamic faiths as choices. Though I would have loved to visit the Islamic temple as well, I chose Beth Israel Synagogue because it was located closer to my house than the Islamic temple in Calvert County.

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

After worship at church, our team rented a Mercedes van and a minivan. It was my first time in a van and it was pretty cool. This van was especially large and could seat 18 people. During the time we were on the road, I got to read a book, talk with my dad, and talk with my friends. We got to eat dinner at Chipotle and we drove to the church. We passed the houses, which were very small. Some of them of them had a weather-beaten and rundown look. Finally, we arrived at Eight Street Community Church..

My involvements with the Ethiopian Orthodox community is one I cherish immensely. Every Sunday, at St. Michael Ethiopian Orthodox Church, I serve as a youth leader to the children of the church. Where through Bible study and teachings of the Ethiopian Fidel (alphabet) the students are able to learn and deepen their knowledge of both their religion and culture. The reason I volunteer is not for the community hours’ nor is it for the authoritative figure I hold. The reason I cherish my time teaching these children is purely for the joy I receive witnessing the sparks of passion ignite in my student's eyes. Their desire to learn and grow moves me deeply to not only better myself as a human but as their teacher as well. Although I am the leader

Growing up I never truly identified with my jewish community, yet I was forced to participate and be a part of it. From a young age I questioned the things that I was taught in school and by my family. I am very lucky that at the age of 8 my parent let me and my siblings decide if we wanted to continue practicing strict religion in our household or not. But although I had more freedom at home after that, I was still forced to attend religious schools, we still lived in a religious community and all my extended family still were extremely orthodox. Although I had the freedom to question things at home and get straight answers from my parents, at school I was not so lucky. Any question I ever asked any of my teachers eventually came back to the

While I was there I was able to take a tour of the whole building. Once you walked in the front door you where greeted by beautiful stained glass windows. To the left there is a door that lead to the synagogue itself. Upon walking in I loved an aisle lined with rows of chairs. The aisle let to an alter where the rabbi would stand during service. At the very center is the ark which houses one of the synagogue’s Torah’s. I later then found out that they keep a traditional sheep skin torah. Also up on the alter is a tradition menorah. I was told that the menorah was actually one of the items donated from another synagogue that had been shut down. Going through the back door I entered the common family center. This is the area where the hold

The Torah niche though is quite clear in its symbolic representation. While in many similar depictions a shofar is seen, here it is replaced in the right section with the Binding of Isaac and a goat left behind Abraham. The goat is tied to a small tree at the bottom while Abraham stands at the ready with a large knife. A stylized Temple and closed aron secures the center with Temple Menorah and a lulav and esrog on the left. This representation has became the most typical depiction of the much yearned for Third Temple in synagogue for the next several

I entered into the worship service, unaware of what to expect. I was not familiar with this church, it was a non-denominational church, but the pastor had his roots in the A.M.E. Zion Church and branched out to establish his own church. I walked into the sanctuary prepared to participate in the Sunday School. I found a seat and readied myself to engage in some meaningful discussion. After sitting for several minutes, I asked one of the gentlemen who was standing at the front of the church if they had already started and where was the lesson coming from. He looked at his watch and indicated that he didn’t know if we had time for Sunday School. A puzzled look came over my face and I couldn’t help but express my confusion as I looked at