The Non-Jewish Individual Essay

The history of Jews in host cities often depict a story of success or of failure when it comes to relations between the Jews and the Christians in Europe. Historian Jonathan Elukin, author of Living Together, Living Apart, presents the integration as a success process with rare, and special cases, of failure. On the other side of the spectrum is historian Raymond P. Scheindlin. Scheindlin’s novel, A Short History of the Jewish People, presents many cases of integration between the Christians and Jews that led to massacres and brutal endings for the Jewish community. There are many monumental events that take place during the long span of time that oversees European Jewish history, and both historians study and evaluate the events, however, they do so through different lenses.

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.

According to the broadest definition, there are approximately 9 million Jewish adults in America. Of those, 5.3 million are Jewish because they practice the Jewish religion or who have a Jewish parent and consider themselves Jewish. Non-hispanic blacks make up 2% of that population. (A Portrait of Jewish Americans) Blacks constitute such a small percentage of the Jewish population that they are often considered to be obviously “not Jewish”. This was the experience of Rabbi Shlomo ben Levy.In an article entitled, “Who are we? Where did we come from? How many of us are there?”, Rabbi Levy describes his feelings of marginalization triggered by an advertisement for Levy’s Jewish Rye. The advertisement features a black boy eating a sandwich and

In the Luis de Carvajal reading, the idea of what it means to be a Jew is explored. To provide some background, Luis de Carvajal (the Younger) was a crypto-Jew, or a secret Jew, who lived in New Spain during the time of the Inquisition. He was burned at the stake in December 1596, after being convicted of observing Jewish religious practices. The reading as a whole fundamentally delineates Luis’ desire to embrace his religion during a time in which people of the Jewish faith either had to either convert to Christianity or suffer persecution. Ultimately, Luis de Carvajal’s memoirs entail the concept that being a Jew involves the following: being loyal and devoted to the religion; carrying on Jewish traditions; feeling or developing a community with fellow Jews; and believing in one God and having a personal connection with Him.

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

However, some Ashkenazi Jews experienced anti-semitism violence in these Christian countries. Many Jewish people were killed during this violence in what Robert Seltzer called a “supercharged religious atmosphere” (1980). In the closing centuries of the Middle Ages many Ashkenazi Jews moved to Italy and Poland in search of new and better opportunities and to escape their deteriorating living conditions in the Rhineland and central Europe, “migrations took place to Italy and Poland… by the sixteenth-century Poland had emerged as the foremost centre of Ashkenazic Jewish scholarship” (Eliezer, 2009, 67).

“The Jews are irreligious, atheistic, immoral bunch of bastards.” (President Richard Nixon, 1972). Throughout history, the Jewish community has been a target of constant discrimination and prejudice as a result of their historical interaction with the Christian Messiah. Often labeled as “God-killers” and portrayed as the faction who prevented the ultimate saving of humanity, governments and social groups have often used Jews as a scapegoat to deflect any political and/or social turmoil that might exist. Robert Grosseteste, a prominent philosopher of the twelfth century, heavily nurtured this sense of hate and abhor towards the Jews of England. In his letter to Margaret de Quincy, Countess of Lincoln, we see Grosseteste’s compelling desire

After World War II ended, Jewish immigrants fled to the United States in order to find a more lucrative and prosperous future for themselves, and their families. Often viewing America as an “El Dorado”, Jews believed that moving to the United States would bring them success and happiness. Unfortunately, immigrants found themselves facing hardships instead. As a result, Jewish communities often quickly fell apart, and people generally viewed them as a whole separate “race”, instead of a religion, opening them up to facing prejudices as well. While enduring the post-war time period, many originally optimistic Jews faced much suffering and came to accept disappointment as a way of life. Often feeling alienated, immigrants clung to their religion as a solace from the world around them, in addition to helping them remember and keep alive their culture. Jewish doctrine taught at an early age the importance of doing well to others. That is to say, Jews would rather face suffering, than to live knowing they chose to do wrong to others. This fundamental “Jewish” concept is what people refer to as “The Golden Rule”. Bernard Malamud’s novel The Assistant follows an Italian man, Frank Alpine, through his journey of self-discovery, while using him to illustrate the dynamics of how the internal struggle differs for Jews versus non-Jews. Additionally, Bernard Malamud showcases Frank’s journey, in his novel The Assistant, to allow his readers a better understanding of the

After I finished learning in Yeshiva, I was completely burnt out from Judaic studies. I just wanted to completely immerse myself in secular studies. After all, I was trying to catch up after not learning English or math for five years. However, recently I realized how important it is to learn something in Judaism every day to maintain a strong connection with God. As a result, I started incorporating some Jewish learning into my daily schedule.

Dear the large meaningful man in the sky, I thank you for writing me this letter. But, I ask you why, why me. Why out of everyone in the world, over 7 billion people, did you choose me. I appreciate that you think I can become great, and I also believe it but, why would you choose the 13 year old Jewish boy living in Toronto Ontario. I like being a Jew but I don’t let it shape my personality, there are people that put more time into being a Jew, by going to shul and celebrating the Jewish holidays. Everyday I wake up hoping that something great will happen to me, but nothing ever does. I thought that I was just an unlucky person, but I realize that it was you throwing me down to see if I can rise above all the challenges, but

From the continental European perspective shared by Simone de Beauvoir and Jean-Paul Sartre, two groups would have stood out as the most historically marginalized; women and Jews. For much of European history, both Jewish people and women were denied the rights and privileges afforded to even the least privileged Christian men. They could not hold their own lands, were barred from all but a select few professions, and lived with the constant threat of organized violence ready to be turned against them if they ever stepped out of line. In a sense, both woman and Jew are used as an other for their outgroups, male and Gentile respectively, to define themselves apart from. Accordingly de Beauvoir and Sartre manage to illustrate substantial similarities between the two groups in their respective analyses that greatly affect their ultimate treatment, even as through their limited scope and personal biases. Chiefly among these similarities is how both the idea of “woman” and “Jew” are created classes, social constructs made in bad faith. While there will obviously be female humans and Jewish people, the identities of woman and Jew exist only because those who were not female and Jewish have labeled them as such. “If the Jew did not exist,” writes Sartre in Anti-Semite and Jew, “the anti-Semite would invent him.” (8) However, one key difference exists between the two: Jews present a hidden and existential threat to their foes that women never will. Even the most strident opponent

If your religion is Judaism you will most definitely encounter an instance of someone claiming that Judaism is a race. While to practicing Jews Judaism is a religion, outsiders sometimes see it as something that is racial. Judaism is quite the conundrum, is it a race or is it a religion? The answer to this question is that it is both. It’s a religion in the technical sense because it is something people can join into and is the central belief system for a group of people. The racial piece has to do with how others see Jews.

“Few will claim for Jewish life in its present state that it can do much to help the Jew who is really concerned in the saving of his soul […] if it is unable to make them feel spiritually at home, it must be made to undergo such changes in its ideology and structure as would generate in it that power” (Kaplan 34).

As I have shown, throughout his essays, Gordon establishes a narrative of the past in the Diaspora which is distinctly negative, drawing on images of the Jewish people as passive and parasitic, alienated from nature and labor and accordingly without a living culture. Through his ideology, Gordon establishes an idea of the perfect relationship between people, nature and labor; a relationship that must be withheld in order for a people to be a living, creative culture. Gordon asserts that the Jewish people have been kept apart from the natural sphere in their own land in which they developed as a people, and have been severed from direct contact with nature in the countries where they are living in Diaspora, thus creating a strictly negative

Every single person is born with a gift, not all gifts are noticeable at first or help anyone in particular, but everyone posses something special. Some people can do two-digit multiplication in their heads, have the trait of leadership, be so convincing that everyone shares the same view as them, or just maybe the gift to bake a perfect apple pie. But with every gift comes a curse; other people become jealous and remorseful of different gifts, or the gift holder becomes narcissistic and arrogant. The special gift that the Jews in any time period posses, is the ability to integrate themselves so deep in society, that eventually they become a crucial part of the larger economy. Although the Jews prospered at first, eventually the Christians became cold and jealous of the Jews success, those feelings lead to the Jews being expelled, converted, or killed otherwise know as the cure. This scaring epidemic happened throughout history, especially the 14th century Spain during the Spanish Inquisition, and 20th century Europe during the devastating Holocaust. Although, the Jews during any time period, were at first honored people in society, progressively the large society started looking at the Jews in an opposing manner, it happened over years, the inspirational rise and horrid downfall of the Jewish people.