Braylyn Boutte The topic I have chosen to do my semester project on is the country of Israel, in The Middle East region of the North African/Southwest Asian realm. I will study the main religion of this area, having no experience with Judaism since I was raised Catholic, I decided to go to a Jewish Synagogue. The Jewish service will be something I will experience to try and relate to this region and the people who reside here.
In the Bible the word Israel originates from Jacob, Abraham's grandson, who was renamed "Israel" by the Hebrew God. This small country surrounded by Jordan, Egypt, Syria, and Lebanon, has a population of more than 8 million people of which is mostly Jewish, and is on the eastern shores of the Mediterranean Sea.
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Popular things to do here are camping and hiking in the Eilat Mountains, and attending soccer and basketball games as these are spectator sports favorited by the nation. Clubbing and partying can also be found as Tel Aviv has many places for outings as such. There is common conflict between the Israelis and Palestinians as the land is divided into territories, but some areas are claimed by both. They each blame each other for terror attacks that claim innocent civilians. (Life in Israel | InterNations, 2017).
I chose to experience this region through religion. Most of the population is Jewish, so I attended a Jewish service at a synagogue in Lafayette. The services held on Friday nights at either 6:30PM or 7PM, and they last about 30-45 minutes. When you walk in before you take a seat you are to grab a prayer book, because when the service starts you will read along with the prayers and some you will read aloud as well. The book was extremely odd to me as you read it back to front, right page first then left, unlike the usual front to back, right to left. They had ancient Hebrew texts as well as modern and English translations. After reading a few opening prayers, some we had to stand for, we moved on to the service leader reading from the Torah which is name for the Hebrew bible. They read a short story and then translate what the main message is and how it relates to the world today and everyday life, similar to how Catholic priest read the gospel from the bible.
One of the three great monotheistic world religions, Judaism began as the faith of the ancient Hebrews, and its sacred text is the Hebrew Bible, particularly the Torah. Fundamental to Judaism is the belief that the people of Israel are God's chosen people, who must serve as a light for other nations. God made a covenant first with Abraham, then renewed it with Isaac, Jacob, and Moses. The worship of Yahweh (God) was centered in Jerusalem from the time of David.
Israel is a country in Western Asia, situated at the southeastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea. It shares land borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria in the northeast, Jordan on the east, the Palestinian territories comprising the West Bank and Gaza Strip to the east and west, respectively, Egypt to the southwest,
Israel was the land stuck between the Jordan River and the eastern coast of the Mediterranean. The people who lived there are referred to as Israelites, and these people are mainly mentioned in the Hebrew Bible.
Judaism started at Mount Sinai in Arabia according to history; however, Israel was to be the homeland of the Jews.
A popular and most recent debate has been whether Israel should exist as a state. Currently, Israel is the only country in the world that has a relatively extensive Jewish population. More recently, Israel has been combatting against Palestinian soldiers in Gaza to prevent attacks on Israel coming from the Palestinian Government. This war has gone on for quite some time now; for years, actually. But how did this conflict develop? It certainly didn’t happen overnight.
Palestinians and Israelis fight over Jerusalem, both wanting the holy site as their capital. The U.N. split Palestine asunder, and the adjoining Arab states declared war on the new country. After months of vehement brawling, Israel and her contiguous Arab states acquiesced ceasing the war. Palestine and Israel differ in multifarious ways. Israel has attained land throughout years and has been identified as a country since 1948, whereas Palestine lives in Gaza Strip and West Bank forthwith, and does not classify as an autonomous country. Palestine’s common language is Arabic, however, Israelis speak Hebrew commonly. Also, they practice different religions, Palestinians practice the Islamic religion, while Israelis practice Judaism. This clash
Israel, a country slightly smaller than the U.S. state of New Jersey, is located in the Middle East. It borders the Mediterranean Sea for a length of 168 miles. In the south and southwest, it borders the Gulf of Aqaba and the Sinai Peninsula. Israel occupied the Sinai Peninsula during the war of June 1967 and returned it to Egypt in April 1982. To the east, it shares a 147-mile borderline with the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan and 189 miles with the Palestinian Autonomous Area on the western shore of the Jordan River. In the north, Israel shares 49 miles of borders with Lebanon, and with Syria for 47 miles on the disputed Golan Heights.
Judaism was first founded by Abraham or Ibri. Ibri, in Hebrew, means “from the other side”, and it relates
The Jewish people stem from the state of Israel with a population of about eight million people and about 75% of the people there being Jewish as of 2015 according to indexmundi.com. The Jewish people have
Jews originated as a national and religious group in the Middle East during the second millennium BCE,[10] in the part of the Levant known as the Land of Israel.[18] The Merneptah Stele appears to confirm the existence of a people of Israel, associated with the god El,[19] somewhere in Canaan as far back as the 13th century BCE.[20][21] The Israelites, as an outgrowth of the Canaanite population,[22] consolidated their hold with the emergence of the Kingdom of Israel, and the Kingdom of Judah. Some consider that these Canaanite sedentary Israelites melded with incoming nomadic groups known as 'Hebrews'.[23] Though few sources in the Bible mention the exilic periods in detail,[24] the experience of diaspora life, from the Ancient Egyptian rule
Israel is a state complete with a multitude of ethnicities. As Jews began to immigrate to the newly formed state, they brought with them distinctive cultural values and traditions that shifted Israel from a more homogenized community into a definite “melting pot”. Significant waves of Jews came from Europe, the Middle East, Asia, Africa and even North America. The impact each of these groups had on Israeli society differed from group to group. Two of the most recent waves of immigrants to Israel came from Ethiopia and the former Soviet Union. Both groups changed the dynamic of Israeli society in ways previous groups had not.
Israel is one of the world’s smallest countries with a total area of 7,850 square miles. Since its independence from British rule in May 1948, Israel has become home to some of the holiest sites of Judaism, Islam, and Christianity. Since 1948, Israel has been in numerous short wars with neighboring countries fighting violence escalated by Palestinian groups and militias.
The people of Israel are warm and friendly. Hospitality in the ancient Biblical stories was a huge part of the culture then and still today. The people are most eager to start a conversation and to share their hospitality, whether it is from a store merchant sharing a complimentary cool and refreshing drink as you enter their establishment or the street vendor who offers free fruit or coffee. Some of the vendors did not only want to sell their goods but was willing to exhibit their crafts, engage in conversation and get to know us. I am reminded of the article “Staying for Tea” by Aaron Ausland who spoke of the importance of “checking our filters” and not to quickly look at situation from our experiences and agendas but to
Within the context of human history there have been many unfortunate events. Whether it is controllable by man, or nature. The world can be a formidable foe, especially In case of the former. Man against man, the eternal struggle. Since ages long forgotten to the folds of time, man has waged war against himself. Likewise can be said regarding the conditions in which present day Palestinians find themselves in. A world not of their making, yet the are forced to live within the conditions others have created for them. For decades, they have been a people without a nation to call home. A people that are constantly met with apathy and malcontent, a people that have been removed from what they call home. Since the creation of the state of Israel, Palestinians have found themselves at a significant loss. They have been displaced, to say the least. With the lack of enthusiasm for Palestinians within the Israeli state, and with much of the former territory they occupied now sanctioned as Israeli land, significant groups of culturally similar people are without a home. This is in part due to expansion by the Israeli forces, and the expulsion of Palestinian people in the process. Yet, with many suspected allies, such as the neighboring Arab states of Syria, Egypt and Jordan. Surely refugees would have somewhere to turn? The painstaking truth is that these refugees often do not receive the proper treatment required by the nations housing them. Infact, in many cases they are treated as
The only Jewish state in the world is called Israel. It was originally called Palestine, but was