Judaism

Judaism, to me, means challenging the greater population. The holocaust was just one of the times Jews were discriminated against, what about the Spanish Inquisition, and today people are trying to fight Israel and take it from us! My jewish identity has mostly formed around religious education, it illustrated to me why it is important to be a Jew and it told me why I should be proud. To me, Judaism is not just a religion, not just a way of life, Judaism to me is a discriminated population that I, for one, am willing to stand up for.

Not only was the Holocaust a bad time, imagine being born in 1850, into the Spanish Inquisition! Jews have been discriminated against since the creation of Christianity, people had discovered how the Jews are a minority so we should be executed. This is a challenge. The Jewish people need to stand up for their religion! Even famous people were anti-Semitic, Walter Elias Disney in the movie Three Little Pigs, released in 1933, had the Big Bad Wolf come to the village dressed as a "Jewish peddler". In the comical animated short "The Opry House", Mickey Mouse after a belly dancing act edits his costume to look like a Hasidic Jew to dance to a part of the song which sounded like "Shalom Aleichem"! That, and Henry Ford, creator of Ford Motor Company, published multiple entry's into the local paper expressing his antisemitism. We, as a Jewish People, has always been hated for our limited differences, if only people would look towards the religious similarities. The three major religions (Islam, Christianity, and Judaism) all are polytheistic and the New Testament states that Jeasus was a Jew! We were still hated in the Spanish Inquisition! I personally think people hate us due to jealousy, in the book of De...

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...y there yet. I still have a lot of room to grow. I envision myself getting confirmed and later becoming a counselor at Camp Hes Kramer, strengthening my Jewish identity tremendously. I plan to become a modrichim for Congregation Ner Tamid in the distant future to help children learn what I was fortunate enough to learn in my past which helped me evolve to who I am today. My Jewish identity has formed but it still has room to work with the much needed growth.

In conclusion, I find Judaism as a religion, a way of life, and a reason to challenge all who oppose. I believe people should be religiously tolerant because we have more religious similarities than differences. My Jewish identity has formed through the education I have received and I plan to continue my education with great purpose. I am proud to be a Jew and there is nothing in this world that can change that.