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What Is The Country Of Israel In The Middle East

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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. …show more content…

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.

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