Why do you believe THAT?
This is an interview-based podcast allowing the host to explore different world viewpoints. Centering on political and religious thought, this podcast is meant for listeners who are truly seeking truth.
Why do you believe THAT?
Judaism: a religion, people, or a community?
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In this interview, I sit down with Theodore "Teddy" Schneiderman on what it means to be Jewish, and what the Jewish people teach about the meaning of life, the character of Jesus, and the significance of a religious identity.
Schneiderman is a Junior at the George Washington University studying Political Science and Judaic Studies. Originally hailing from the suburbs of Los Angeles, Teddy has been involved in Jewish life for as long as he can remember. Schneiderman is the President and former Recruitment Director of AEPi (Jewish Frat) at GW, the Former Regional Godol [Guh-dohl] (President) of Pacific Western Region BBYO, and the Head Counselor at Jewish Sleepaway Camp, Camp Alonim, in Simi Valley, CA.
Okay, and welcome back to another episode of Why Do You Believe That? As per typical, my name is Hannah Douglas, and I will be your host today. And joining me is Theodore Teddy Schneiderman.
SPEAKER_00What up guys? How are we?
SPEAKER_01Doing well. Doing well. Alright, so Teddy is a junior at GW University, George Washington, studying political science and Judaic Studies. Originally hailing from the suburbs of Los Angeles, Teddy has been involved in Jewish life for as long as he can remember. So he's the former president, he's the president and former recruitment director of AEPI, the Jewish Frat at GW. He's the former regional Goodal President of Pacific Western Region, BBYO, and he's the head counselor at Jewish slepaway camp, Camp Alonim, in Simi Valley, California. In today's episode, we're talking all about Judaism and more specifically what it means to believe in Judaism. Judaism is one of the world's oldest monotheistic traditions, tracing its origins back thousands of years to the ancient Israelites in the Middle East. At its core is the belief in one God and a covenant, a kind of sacred relationship between God and the Jewish people. But Judaism isn't just a religion in the way people often think about religion. It's also a culture, a people head, and for many, an identity that can exist whether or not someone is strictly religious. That means when we ask why do you believe that, in a Jewish context, we're not always just asking about belief in God. We're also talking about history, tradition, memory, and belonging, about how law, ritual, and community shape the way people see the world and their place in it. Across different communities, Orthodox, conservative, reformed, secular, Judaism can look very different. Some Jews express their beliefs through strict religious observances, others through cultural practice, and others through a connection to shared history or peoplehood. So in this episode, I want to explore not just what Judaism teaches, but how individuals understand and live out those teachings and how belief, identity, and tradition intersects in their lives. But obviously, this is a subject I don't know too much about as I am not a practicing Jew, nor Jewish at all. But Teddy, thank goodness, is here to talk about his whole experience and as much as he can share.
SPEAKER_00Heck yeah, I am.
SPEAKER_01So Teddy, to you, what does it mean to be Jewish?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, uh, I think that's a really loaded question. I think this is something that I'm asked a lot is when I meet a person who's not Jewish, who per se hasn't met a Jewish person before, or hasn't met someone who's as Jewish as I am, and I want to be frank, I am not a religious Jew. I don't go to temple every Friday, I don't say the Shema every day when I wake up. It's like the Jewish equivalent of the Hail Mary, per se. I am very much so a cultural Jew. At the same time, though, I still consider myself to be religious in a sense. And I think that Judaism has a very interesting way of tying in every single aspect of identity, whether it's religion or culture or peoplehood, identity, etc., Judaism is kind of all-encompassing. And uh when you ask what does it mean to be Jewish, that was the question, right? Uh when you ask what does it mean to be Jewish, I think it means being involved in a community that traces back thousands of years. And as a Jew, you are born with, you're not told this obviously, but you are born with the goal of keeping a community that has lived in diaspora for over 2,000 years alive. It's a high task, and everyone practices it differently, everyone observes differently. But to me, Judaism is, as you said, it's a covenant, and uh I think that's the best way to to sp to lay it down to one word.
SPEAKER_01And do you ever use the term like ethno religion? I've had some other friends use.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I I don't think I think about Judaism as scientifically as a word like ethno-religion would. I think that's probably the proper way to put it. I typically describe like Jews as a people, um, because I think there are so many different aspects of Judaism that you can't describe it in any one way. It is a religion, sure, there are religious practices, but the vast majority of Jews in America, but also in the world, are not wearing big hats and are practicing super orthodox conservative religion as you know the Talmud mandates it. Most Jews are kind of laymen in a way. It's uh really cultural and really community-oriented. Uh, and I think that's something that really stands apart from a lot of other religions, is Judaism is about the community. And I think that's one thing that makes it so special.
SPEAKER_01And so a lot of my audience is Christian, yeah. And so kind of will take a hard time to digest that. So in like the typical Christian context, right? Like, for example, I'm like Christian and I'm ethnically British, right? And so there's like a historical tie, right, that like Christianity spread throughout Western Europe, but no, these two identities are not necessarily mutually exclusive, like they are they are mutually exclusive.
SPEAKER_00I'd love to pop into that for a minute, which is uh in Judaism, like you have your ethnicity, of course. Like I can trace my ancestry back to a bunch of different countries in Europe. My last name is German Schneiderman, it's a male tailor in German. And uh I have family that traces back to Ukraine and to Britain as well. And what separates Judaism from Christianity in that sense is I don't consider myself a German Jew, which is a funny oxymoron in and of itself. Uh, I'd consider myself to be an Ashkenazi Jew, uh, which is a Jew of white European descent. Uh and so that's I think the main thing that separates Jewish identity from Christian identity is Jews can be grouped into a couple different groups. Ashkenazi Jews, when you meet a Jewish person, are they white? Typically Ashkenazi.
SPEAKER_01And so you said you would call yourself Ashkenazi Jewish, not German Jewish. Yes, exactly. Are is there over like what does it mean to be Ashkenazi?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I mean Ashkenazi, I don't I don't want to mince words because to be frank, there's so much encompassing this, and I think the definition isn't one that is truly based in anything other than personal identity. It a lot of it has to do with uh where you're from, and I I'd be happy to pull up a map of it because I really don't know the exact specifics. What separates me from saying that I'm a German Jew or an Ashkenazi Jew, I think and the reason why Jews use terms like Ashkenazi and Sephardic is the diasporic element of Jewishism. Uh Jews have been persecuted since our existence. That's a part of the culture of every single Jewish holiday. There's a funny chart on Twitter where it's uh four things is it's uh uh for every Jewish holiday, it's a list of Jewish holidays. The first category is were we persecuted. The second one is were we saved by God. The third one is trees for some reason. There's a lot of Jewish holidays in the trees.
SPEAKER_01Okay.
SPEAKER_00Uh in I've forgetting the fourth category, but uh it's it's funny because Judaism is is diasporic, that's the best way to put it. And uh I can't call myself a German Jew because I my family didn't originate in there. I mean, they originated from somewhere else, and to be frank, I have zero clue. So I I think the best way to put it is Ashkenazi because it encompasses the fact that Jews in Western Europe moved all over the place. Yeah. Yeah, you can't really call it any other way because it's so intertwined with not having a nationality and more so having religion be that source of identity.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. And so then talking about the religious element, um, do you believe in God? And if so, what does God mean to you?
SPEAKER_00It's a hard question. Um I want to start off by saying that I've struggled with belief in God. Um I think that you know all the Abrahamic religions have similar ideas of what God is. I don't know, I I'm gonna be honest, I don't really believe in the whole one man in a sky type of thing. Uh my version of Judaism that I've practiced my whole life. I started going to sleep away camp at Alanim, which you mentioned when I was eight years old. And aside from going to Hebrew school on Sundays and learning like the alphabet in Hebrew, I didn't have any Jewish experience. My mom isn't religious whatsoever, her father was a rabbi actually, or trained in rabbinical school, wasn't actually a rabbi. Um, but my mom grew up not religious, my dad grew up not religious, they're both Jews. Um, and so my mom sent me to a Jewish summer camp thinking it was just me hanging out with my friends, and I ended up learning a lot, and I've gone every summer since I was eight years old. So the definition of God that I got in my experience with religion is really tethered to nature, uh, into the outdoors and to the world as a whole. And a lot of that has to do with my camp. I mean, it uh fun fact about it, uh the AJU campus, American Jewish University campus that our camp is located on, is the largest single piece of land owned by a Jew outside of the state of Israel. Uh it's 60,000, I believe 40 or 60,000 acres, I think they just sold off some. But it's it's insane, and it is absolutely stunning, and it's just you know the first scene The Lion King when Simba and his dad are on the top of the mountain, and you look over and you say, like, as far as the eye can see, like this land is yours. Like that's what it feels like at my camp. And in learning about religion and learning about God, my identity with and my relationship with God became centered around nature. And I think that's something that's so interesting is I I don't view God in the sky. I don't look up and I and I say God. But if I'm praying, which I will on occasion, uh, I I think of God as in being a part of everything around us. And that's something that's tethered back to Jewish texts and uh like you know the tree, like God was in the in the bush in the burning bush scene of the Bible. And uh my definition of God would be uh an unknown power that surrounds us in a way and that has tethers into every part of society. Do I think my beliefs are correct? In all honesty, I have zero clue. Am I sure of my beliefs? In all honesty, no. But it's the closest thing I found to acceptance in what religion means to me.
SPEAKER_01And how does that idea or that belief differ across like all Jewish people?
SPEAKER_00God is viewed in many different ways across Judaism. Uh, even in different texts, like you'll get different versions of God in all the different books. He can be benevolent, he can be, you know, like all-knowing, he can also be mean in some texts. And uh the version of God that Jews practice is one to be revered, but not one to be feared. And I think that is a big major part of Jewish identity, is it's not a if you don't do this, God will be mad at you. You know, like that's not the God that we worship in Judaism. And uh I think there definitely is some of that white man in the sky, uh, but I think it is a hell heck of a lot less prevalent in Judaism than it is in other faiths. And do I know why? In all honesty, no. But I I do think it is because Judaism came into prevalence in a time when the whole identity of of white man in the sky wasn't a thing. Because uh when Judaism was founded and when it became, you know, the religion of Judah and Israel, the old states, the world was monotheistic in a way. Henotheistic is the term that I've used in my Judaism studies time. Henotheism, by definition, is belief in one God while acknowledging that other cultures have their own, and they may as well be real. And I think henotheism is the most interesting concept because when you think about that and you read the text of the Old Testament, there are mentions of Baal, and it's those cross-references that are seen in the Bible that make you say, hey, wait, you know, Judaism was founded when there were other gods and other people being other gods. And in our text it says, you know, the first sentence of the Shema is you shall have no other god before me. And the phrasing is really funny because it's not you shall have no other god, it's you shall not have any other god before me. And it's not saying that there are no other gods, just that we only worship one. And I think that's evolved over time. Most definitely it has. And Judaism became monotheistic between the first and tenth century and has been practiced as a monotheistic religion ever since. And to me, it's so intriguing to see the fact that like the Jewish culture and like Jewish identity, which has changed so much over time, Jewish spiritual practices have changed too. And so I can't place a definition of of what God is in Jewish culture. I just don't think there is one.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, wait, that's super interesting stuff. T explain more about how you were taught about like the evolution of God in like Judaic thought.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, um, I I want to give a shout out to a professor I had. I think he is a genius, uh, Christopher Rolston at GW. He used to teach at a Christian th uh seminary, uh, I don't remember which one, and uh he was let go because he was preaching, or not preaching, he was teaching his classes that there were other gods. And it's such interesting philosophy, and I've brought this up to my rabbi before, and he's like, Oh, it's you know, I don't know if I believe that, but when you read the texts straight up, there are mentions of other gods.
SPEAKER_01Or like the council of gods mentioned in the Psalms?
SPEAKER_00100%. And uh it's mostly classes. Uh I've taken four classes as a professor, and I've taken other ones, and the funny thing is, I thought this was just the beliefs of one man at first, that this professor just had like some crazy idea of what God was, and then I've taken other Judaic Science classes, and they all mention that Judaism did not start off as a monotheistic religion, and it's so intriguing because you'll never get taught that in Hebrew school, ever. And it comes from this, you know, uh educational point of view of these people who devote their entire lives to studying these texts, and sure rabbis do the same thing, and sure Cantonists do the same thing. But looking at it from an analytical lens versus a you know a religious lens are two exceedingly different things. And and the thing is, temples acknowledge that Judaism has changed over time. Even a Chabad acknowledges that Judaism has changed over time.
SPEAKER_01Which what is that?
SPEAKER_00So uh a Chabad is the uh largest Orthodox Jewish movement on the planet. Um they if for if any of your listeners are college students, there are Chabads everywhere. If any of your listeners live in any city whatsoever, you find a building that says Chabad, they are everywhere. It is uh they're considered Lubavitch, is the proper term. Uh but they are kind of strict textual interpretation Jews. Uh if you ever see them, they have the top hats and the the little strings. They're called uh uh Tseit. Tit seed, yes. Thank you. So is the non-Jew. There we go. Uh yeah, tzit seed on their on their waists, and uh I will say one thing. Chabad Jews are very intent on Judaism being the way that they want it. Do I think that's a bad thing? Not at all. They are some of the most welcoming people you'll ever meet. If you ever find yourself, even if you're not Jewish, in a city and you don't have anywhere to stay, a Chabad will let you sleep on the floor of their house. They will put you on a couch, they will feed you warm food, and it is that culture that I think has created such a large large movement. And am I a part of Chabad? Absolutely not. I I I have no interest in strict observance. I don't think that's for me. Uh I practice my religion, my culture in other ways, and I'm completely okay with that. But do I think that they've created a very strong tight-knit community of people that care for one another? 100%. Is it cool to see? Yeah. Is it for me? No. Is it gonna be for most people? Probably not either.
SPEAKER_01Um, in a lot of this, we've talked about the different texts that uh the Jewish people observe. Explain a little bit what that's like.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, uh, so the Jewish texts or the Tanakh is broken up into three different sects or three different sections. Uh there's the Torah, which everybody knows there's five books of the Torah. Um, that is the same stuff that is practiced in Christianity. It's the five main books of the Bible. There's also the words of the prophets, which is uh I'm forgetting the name, I believe the Ketuim is the third one that's the writings. Um it's the second part of the Tanakh, and it's like the book of Daniel and all the prophets of the ninth, eighth, and seventh century. And so books like that, uh, and then there's the writings like books like Kings uh are in there. And uh it's funny because you typically think of Judaism, you think of the Torah, but there's so much more text there than just what you're reading in the Torah. And you know, each week at a Shabbat service on a Saturday morning per se, it is or at Bar Mitzvah's too every week, uh, you have a Torah portion for that week. And the Torah portion is only from the main five books. But there are so many other books that are part of the Jewish canon that aren't a part of those five. And uh I don't know the over like the crossover with Christianity in a lot of these books. Um but I'm pretty sure we take all of them. I think you take all of them, too. The book of Daniel is by far my favorite one. I think it's the most interesting. I like the kind of apocalyptic stories that are in the book of Daniel. Uh, and uh yeah, it's uh I think Judaism is misconstrued in that way of being I'd say not necessarily by Christians, but by the wider Western world as a whole, of being a religion made up of just those five books. Meanwhile, there's a lot more to it. And uh that is kind of my version of Judaism. There's also uh like Orthodox Jews like Chabad, as I previously mentioned, they are called Talmudic Jews. Um and uh the Talmud is another text, um it's kind of like the conversation we're having now, uh, which I think is a funny way to put it because it's a book, and you think a book, you think stories, but the Talmud is is not inherently a book of stories. It is a conversation between rabbis interpreting the Torah. And so they go through every single part of the Tanakh, so the prophets, the main five books, the writings, etc. And they go through it and they talk about everything. How should this be done? How should we listen to this? How do I adhere to this specific law? And so the Talmud is super interesting, and most Jews not most, I don't know the you know percentages of what Jews are orthodox, what Jews practice the Talmud, which don't. I had never read the Talmud, I still haven't really read the Talmud, most of it, and uh I find that to be super interesting, that there's it. I'm trying to find the best way to put it. It really is like a diatribe, like a dialogue between between a bunch of different rabbis, and uh it's seen as a holy text in the same way that the Torah is, and that's something that's super intriguing to me.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, dialogue is in like there's like arguments or disagreements within it itself.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, arguments and disagreements within itself of I think we should do this, no, I think we should do that, okay, so we're gonna do this.
SPEAKER_01And so it's um and then what did you call that? All of the Torah plus uh it's called the Tanakh. The Tanakh, okay.
SPEAKER_00T-A-N-A-K-H.
SPEAKER_01So there's that, there's the Tamud. Yes. Is there anything else that's considered within there?
SPEAKER_00That's a hard question. Uh again, because Judaism is such a a widely spread out religion, there are different groups that practice different things. I know uh there are more texts within Orthodox Judaism that I haven't mentioned, strictly because I don't know them. There's something around ten other books that I believe are are mentioned in Orthodox Judaism.
SPEAKER_01What is it like to have your holy text also shared by in the basis of other faiths as well?
SPEAKER_00Honestly, I think it's cool. I think there are some Jews that would be like, haha, you're using our text. I just I am somebody who loves interpretation and who thinks that the most interesting part of the Jewish religion itself, and this isn't saying the Jewish culture, but Jewish religion is interpretation. And seeing the different ways that we view the Old Testament versus different Christian faiths or or Islamic faith at the same time view the same text is really, really intriguing. And it's it's funny because when I first read the you know the New Testament, the Bible, it's uh it feels like a different world. It really does. And to see our texts translated into English, and uh a quote that I love is translation is interpretation. Uh and our texts are not really translated out of Hebrew, but they're all read in Hebrew to this day. And uh I find that funny because most Jewish scholars in the last thousand years, Hebrew was not their first language, on either close. Whether it was Ashkenazi Jews who spoke Yiddish in Eastern Europe or Sephardic Jews who a lot of them spoke Arabic during the different dynasties in Europe. Uh Hebrew was not the main language in Judaism after the Greeks uh in like 200 BC to 90, like when the temple fell in 70 CE, Hebrew as a language was pretty much extinct by then. There was ancient Aramaic, and uh Hebrew kind of died out in a way and was only really taught from scholar to scholar. It's funny because the oldest textual variant of the Bible or of the Hebrew Bible that we have is the Dead Sea Scrolls, which, for the listeners, if you're not familiar, were discovered in 1947 in a cave in Qumran, uh, which is a small little part uh in the Levant. And uh the story is that this uh this Arab guy was looking for treasure and lost his goat, and he was really mad about it. He threw a rock into a cave and he heard a vase shatter. And that's the story of how the Dead Sea scrolls were found. Do we know if it's true? I have zero clue, and I, you know, I don't really know if this guy was looking for his goat. But at the same time, those texts are very, very different from the ones that we see from the Masoretes who were considered the translators and the people who really made the Torah mainstream in the 800s to 1000s CE period.
SPEAKER_01As in the Hebrews different.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, well, they were the ones who kept copying it. The Masoretes were the people who were considered copyists of the Hebrew Bible. And the Masoretic text before the Dead Sea Scrolls was considered the oldest version of the Bible, the Hebrew Bible. And now we have the Dead Sea Scrolls, and they're obviously exceedingly similar, but there are differences. And that's what's so interesting. And I think that's what plays in to the translation from Judaism to Christianity, is there are a lot of things that are translated just a little bit differently that really make a lot of difference. And so that's something that I find so interesting regarding not only Judaism to Christianity, but Judaism to Judaism, how our texts have changed over time.
SPEAKER_01So, do you think there's anything that the Christian faith itself misinterprets about Judaism?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I think the big one for me is uh the devil. There are three total mentions of. The devil in the Hebrew Bible. And only in one of them is it the devil. And the devil doesn't translate to the devil in Judaism. It is, it is the accuser, is the proper translation from the Hebrew text. And there's multiple occasions of the accuser being mentioned in the in the Hebrew texts. And not once, it kind of was in a later version, but in the original text, it is not in an he is evil way, he is Satan way. The text mentions Satan, that's the exact translation, and Satan Satan, same thing. It is mentioned as Hacatan twice, which translates from Hebrew as the accuser, and once as Satan, accuser. And that is a proper noun as opposed to a title of somebody. I I I don't want to get the verses mixed up, but um one of them is about David taking the census and he was pushed by Hasatan to do it. The other one is uh, I believe Job. Job is the one who was tested, right? Yes. Yeah. And so the mention of the the Christian version of the devil in that is not the devil at all in our text. It is it is somebody who came to God accusing Job of being uh saying that he could wouldn't be faithful if he was put through all these trials.
SPEAKER_01Like as in a human?
SPEAKER_00No, it it's some sort of some sort of figure, maybe an angel of some kind. But it's it's funny because our version of Hazatan and the Christian version of Satan are two entirely different things.
SPEAKER_01And I find that so But explain what makes them different.
SPEAKER_00The idea that the accuser is bad, inherently, that he's doing things to be bad, is a belief that the Jewish people in our texts just don't have. Sure, in the verse where he has David take a sense as he's mischievous, but in the book of Job, Hassatan is not the one that does everything to Job. That's God's action.
SPEAKER_01Right, right, right, yeah.
SPEAKER_00And uh in the other text, I believe, I I don't want to name it because I just don't know the text. I'm again, guys, I'm not religious. I'm not a student of the texts uh in the same way that uh others would be. But yeah, I I I think that our version of the devil is just completely different. And it's funny seeing how that's been taken and translated over time.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, absolutely. Is there any other things you can think of like that?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, uh, this is just a Judaism to Judaism thing, uh Goliath. In the Masoretic text, he has listed as I believe six cubits in a span, which is nine feet six inches. Which, guys, I'm five'e. Like he would tower over me. In the Dead Sea Scrolls, he is listed as three cubits in span, which is a really interesting difference. That means he's six foot uh six foot six inches, which, if I'm being honest, that's a lot more reasonable. And and it's it's so intriguing to see that there's all these little changes that have been made to either soften the images of good characters or strengthen the images of people that have been conquered. And it's it's really, really surprising. And it's super cool to have the ability to look at the text that for a thousand years was considered the oldest version of the text and compared to one that's older, and one that has less changes in it. And to me, that's just so absolutely wild.
SPEAKER_01Okay, also talk about the revitalization of the Hebrew language.
SPEAKER_00I don't want to misconstrue myself again. Uh what I think is it dates back to the originations of Zionism, late 1800s, where guys like Hertzl were trying to find a Jewish state, and a part of that was preserving and creating a Jewish Israeli identity. And Hertzl taught his kids Hebrew as their first language, which was never done. Hebrew was an absolutely dead language, and modern Hebrew is different than ancient Hebrew. Slightly different, a lot of different textual variants, obviously, but like the vowels that are used in the Torah are nowhere to be found in modern Hebrew. There are no vowels in modern Hebrew. And it's stuff like that that is the difference between the two languages. But I think that from my perspective, modern Hebrew was constructed as a way to give Jews a way of separating themselves and a way of creating an identity that felt biblical and like connected us to our homeland of Israel.
SPEAKER_01And so while we're on that kind of subject, oh, what is the spectrum of beliefs when it comes down to the Jewish people and their relationship with Zionism?
SPEAKER_00I think it is about as broad a spectrum as you can have. I know Jews that are Israel first Jews. I have seen people say, I am an Israeli Jew, not a Jewish American, because I want a homeland in the Middle East, and by whatever means necessary, we need to have the state of Israel. There are Jews on the far left, like at Berkeley during Passover, there was a Jewish uh Palestinian satyr, which satyr is uh what like a Passover dinner. It's you talk about all the ten plagues, you celebrate the fact that the Jews made it out of Egypt, and uh there was a a Palestinian satyr where Jewish people did a satyr on the floor of a Berkeley campus, Cal Berkeley campus, and all or kafias and all denounce the state of Israel. And so you kind of have Jews on either side of the spectrum as far as it goes, and there's Jews there in the middle who are non-aligned in a way and who don't believe that the Israeli state is of importance to them and is of importance to how they practice religion. Yeah, I I've met Jews all across that spectrum, and I gave examples of the far sides on either side. And I'd say I'd wager that 99% of Jews fall somewhere in between. I don't know if that is a correct number, but I I think it's fair to say that every Jew has their own opinions on this, because it's a topic that's deeply personal, because the state of Israel and its foundation in the 1940s really comes down to the fact that Jewish persecution was at an all-time high. And in my perspective, as much as I I vehemently, vehemently hate Benjamin Netanyahu, and I think he's doing horrible things for not only the Israeli people and the Israeli state, but for Jewish people around the globe. Anti-Semitism is at a high that we haven't seen since the Holocaust right now. I believe the Jewish people need a home. And I think that the Jewish people having a home in Israel is a good thing because that is the textual home of the Jewish people. Do I think that the way that the Israeli government has gone about it is perfect? Do I think the way they've gone about it is good? Absolutely not. I think there are so many problems with the way that the state of Israel is created and that it's been maintained. But at the same time, though, the Jews need a space where they can self-govern. They need a space where they can be protected from anti-Semitism. From where somebody screaming a slur at you isn't an everyday possibility. And every other major religion in the world has a nation. Like that. Almost every other religion. Sure, there are some smaller ones that don't, but Judaism is the largest religion in the world to not have its own country. Like it just it doesn't make sense to me why we shouldn't.
SPEAKER_01As in, like, what would you equate to the Christian equivalent of that?
SPEAKER_00I I mean I think that a lot of Western nations are majority Christian, maybe not in law, but like the Vatican is Catholic, and I I don't I don't want to discontinue say they're very different religions. But you see a Christian minor or majority in a large number of countries. And maybe maybe my words are wrong. Maybe I missed them by saying that. But to me, what separates that from Jews is that Jews aren't a majority anywhere.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00They're just not. We have been, you know, our numbers have been dwindled to mere millions. And to say that the Jewish people shouldn't have a place to call their own, to me, is is can be like a dumbfounding, you know?
SPEAKER_01So then is the significance and the importance of Israel because it is Jewish by law, or be because the Jewish people hold like a majority within the country?
SPEAKER_00Definitely not the latter. I don't think that Israel needs to be majority Jewish to be Jewish. Uh I don't think it needs to follow Jewish law to be Jewish. I just think it needs to be accepting and allow a space where anti-Semitism and anti-Jewish sentiment is not allowed. And according to population charts, Israel will not be majority Jewish in a short amount of time if birth rates continue the same. And I don't inherently think that's a bad thing. I think it is great for Jews to intermix with other aspects of society. Jews have been demonized since as long as we've existed. And to go into a world where you are meeting somebody with an obvious negative perception of you just because of the size of your nose or because you're wearing a star of David. Those things create prejudice and stigma. And to have a country where Judaism is allowed to flourish and thrive without the fear of persecution is, in my opinion, what the state of Israel should be there for.
SPEAKER_01So how does coming from a history of community and family that faced such widespread persecution like affect your identity?
SPEAKER_00I grew up facing very little anti-Semitism. I went to public school and I was one of 30 Jews in my graduating class of 800. Like we were by far a minority at the same time, though. Like my best friends in high school were all Jews. At camp, my best friends obviously were all Jews. I resident out of high school in my Jewish youth group, can you guess? Jews. And so I grew up in a place where I didn't feel threatened, where anti-Semitism, well, obviously there are strings of it everywhere in society. I didn't feel it myself. The best example of anti-Semitism growing up was uh I had kids make Holocaust jokes to me, and that's like, to them it's funny. It's not funny. And then I came to GW, and I loved my college experience. GW is 30% Jewish. Uh, we have a thriving, thriving Jewish community. And the first weekend in DC, I was on the Metro, uh, and I got my Jewish star ripped off my neck, which I wear proudly every day, and I got called uh the slur for Jewish people, the one that starts with a K, which I probably shouldn't say on the podcast. I was shocked and really confused and scared. And less than two months later, October 7th happened. Uh, and to me that was a wake-up call of I am someone who has spent my life building communities. We need to build one here. And that's what led me to joining AEPi, which uh Alpha Epsilon Pi, for those of you who don't know, it's a Jewish fraternity that was created in 1913 because Jews were banned from other fraternities, which is crazy. At GW it started up the year before, so spring of 2023. We've become the third largest frat at GW overnight, really disrupted things, and it's because of the values that we preach. And because at a school where we're 30% Jewish, the Jews need a home. I needed a home, and I've managed to find one and build one. And I think that's what makes the Jewish community so special is the ability to survive, to overcome, to make it through the Holocaust, to make it through the pilgrims, to make it out of Egypt in the Bible to survive.
SPEAKER_01Backtracking a little bit, because I want to ask one question. What is your, you can give your or like the broader interpretation of Jesus? What do Jews think of the character of Jesus?
SPEAKER_00It's a great question. The definition that I've given and been given by rabbis is that Jesus was a man who lived and who could be considered a prophet, could not be considered a prophet. I don't think that necessarily matters within Judaism, who spoke his truth, passed away. And there is no belief of resurrection in Judaism whatsoever. Jesus is not even named in the Old Testament. He's kind of, you know, he's an old test, he's a New Testament figure. And it's it's funny because the the guy who is the most important person, aside from maybe God in the Christian faith, has no mention in Judaism. And so to us, Jesus is kind of a a second thought in a way. I think the one thing that's important for me to note is I have no problem with the belief in Jesus. I have no issue at all, and I don't even know if I'm correct. If Jesus was resurrected, that's absolutely incredible, and then I have zero issue with that whatsoever. But that's not what I was taught. I wasn't taught that Jesus was resurrected. I wasn't taught that Jesus was the Son of God. It's just these things aren't instilled in me the way they are in Christianity.
SPEAKER_01Have you ever uh interacted with messianic Jews?
SPEAKER_00Not personally. Okay. Um I read a paper on him.
SPEAKER_01You wrote a paper on him?
SPEAKER_00I wrote a paper on him.
SPEAKER_01Wow, and never met one?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, never met one. There's there's this big character uh in Messianic Judaism who he moved to Israel as a rabbi and got a little violent and tried to take the entirety of ancient Israel for the Jews. And his belief is that if the Jews can somehow reclaim all of ancient Israel, the messianic period will come back. And it's a funny belief to me because in the Torah we're kind of left with a cliffhanger of like God will return one day. I don't know when, and I don't know if he will. I am not the type to believe that hurting people or doing all you can to create a messianic period is a good thing. That's kind of the main example of messianic Jews that I can think of. I mean, there's the Lubavitch Jews, uh, some of them believe that uh this guy, the Lubavitch Rebbe, who died in the 80s, was the Messiah. Um, and it was a massive thing. Because at all times within the Lubavitch Chabad movement, there is a Rebbe. There is a main rabbi who is seen as it's kind of the Pope of Judaism, or of that version of Judaism. And the seventh one, uh, all of a sudden in the 50s and 60s, everyone's like, okay, this guy's God now. This guy is the Messiah, he came back. But yeah, I mean, I think that the Jews have an inherent goal of we want God to come back. We do. And depending on how you practice, you believe that in different ways. And messianism has never been a part of my identity. And I think that speaks for a massive number of reformed and even conservative Jews. That messianism is a it's not something that define messianism. Messianism, in my perspective, is the belief that someday someone will come back and either be the second coming of God or usher in the era of the second coming of God.
SPEAKER_01I would say acting messianic Jews is in the term that I've heard is in like people that are like both ethnically and raised Jewish, but then believe in Christ and like walk like Christian.
SPEAKER_00Wow, okay, yeah, so we're different words there.
SPEAKER_01Okay.
SPEAKER_00Entirely different terms for Messianic Jews. Let's talk about yours. Define it one more time for me.
SPEAKER_01So like people that are ethnically Jewish and sometimes racist in the faith, sometimes not, but then find a belief in Jesus. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00I've never met one. A lot of converts to Judaism. I've never met a like a convert to Christianity from Judaism, which is so. Which is really interesting to me. I think it's because I surround myself with mostly Jewish circles, and that's probably to be to be me. But have you, Hannah? Have you?
SPEAKER_01I have. I have a couple of messianic Jewish friends, actually.
SPEAKER_00Interesting, really? Yeah. Okay, cool.
SPEAKER_01So didn't know your take, but yeah.
SPEAKER_00Uh I mean I I think my take on it is, I don't know. I I find myself to be a religious libertarian, if that makes sense. Practice whatever you want to practice, believe whatever you want to believe. And if the messian Jews believe that Christ is their savior, fantastic. I have no problem with that.
SPEAKER_01What do you think are the biggest misconceptions or things that people don't typically understand about the Jewish population that you've observed?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, God, I I mean it all draws back to stereotypes for me. It's funny because I obviously not the stereotypes for Judaism. We have big noses, we're always really rich, we're rude, snobby, whatever you want to put it. I just I think that's the furthest thing from the truth. Obviously, there are people who have the stereotypes, my nose isn't exactly small, but it's the same as if you're calling any of other people a stereotype. Because we're not just a religion. Judaism isn't a group of one race. Judaism is not a race of people. Judaism is as much a people as it is a religion. And to describe all Jews as money grubbing, I think is just horribly incorrect. The Jewish people, from my you know, length of knowing them, are a peaceful group of people. Are a group of people who put in the work and the stereotype of Jewish people being rich and Jewish people controlling the government. It's so funny to me because do I think it's wrong? Absolutely. Is there some truth to it? Are there a lot of Jews in powerful positions? Yeah. But I don't put that to our religion, I put that to the shared work ethic, and to the idea that Jews support one another, help one another, especially because we're 1.001% of the American population. What separates the Jewish people and what a big misconception, and where I think that that conception comes from is Jews stick together. And through hard times, Jews work together. And Jews create a culture and cultivate a community where success is valued. And when you look at any given country that kicked Jews out for controlling the government or something like that, the main thing is it didn't start out that way. Jews came into a country where they were the minority, where they were either enslaved or where they were dirt poor and worked their way up and did it in absolutely legal manners. And I do not think that like there's any truth to the idea that Jews are in it for money or that they are evil or part of the Illuminati. But yeah, I think that really a lot of the stereotypes about the Jews come down and come back to that element of diaspora, of Jewish survival. Because the big thing through all of Judaism is our ability to survive, our ability to recreate and reconnect and reinvigorate our population. I think the the thing that people see in society is Jews in powerful positions, they have work to be there. This isn't a I'm giving my son the power to do whatever he wants. This is a I am instilling good work ethic and good values into my community to create success for our entire group. That's how I view it.
SPEAKER_01Like the Jewish identity is so unique.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Um, as in like one that like transcends race and things like that. Of course. Is there is there anything that's like close to similar to that in different like in a different people group?
SPEAKER_00You know, I wouldn't be able to say. I assume there has to be. I think the Jews are targeted a lot more than other religions. I think that Jewish hate over the last 2,000 years plus has caused the Jews to be a very specific group of people. I am so proud that I was born Jewish. I'm not, you know, like a religious Jew, but I was born into a community of people that care for each other.
SPEAKER_01Overall, if you have one, what would you say is like the purpose of life according to Judaism?
SPEAKER_00I think it differs. I think the goal of the Jewish people, and one of the main goals of the people as a whole, is Siddaka is a big one, which is the Jewish word for charity, uh, taking care of throigh, love thy neighbor, etc. Stuff like that, that is so important. And the other one is tekunolam, which is repair the world. Those are two of I think the main goals of Judaism is to create a loving and nurtured society where people are happy and content.
SPEAKER_01And then how often do the Jewish people talk about the afterlife? What does that look like to you guys?
SPEAKER_00Another little question. You're you're getting good ones, Hannah. We don't have a hell or a heaven per se. That doesn't mean you don't go anywhere after you die. We don't have like a rebirth thing or anything like that. I think it's a lot more monotonous than that. Uh there's an idea of purgatory in Judaism, uh, and purgatory is not in a negative sense. Uh purgatory is kind of just like a middle plane where you go after you die. And it's funny because in the in the Hebrew Bible, the world is surrounded by waters on pillars floating in the middle of nowhere, for I think on a larger rock or something like that. There is no real idea of heaven in Judaism. I don't know, because honestly, as a Jew, I still believe in heaven. I would love to, after I die, be in a place of my relatives and be in a place where I can be happy. I would hate to be in a place where there's fiery pits around me. That would really suck. I wouldn't want to be there with the accuser. I think that would really, really suck. And so it's it's so intriguing to me because I think that's one of the aspects where Judaism, at least Reform Judaism, like I practice, has really merged a lot with Christian society. And I think the afterlife is a very loaded question. I don't think 99 out of 100 Jews would be able to tell you the proper definition of the afterlife in Judaism.
SPEAKER_01Okay, well, is there anything else you want to talk about that we haven't yet or any final comments?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, the final comment that I'd like to give the listeners is to give the Jewish people a chance. It hurts me to say that because we shouldn't need more. And there's a lot of negativity in the world. It is important to, as said in the Bible, love their neighbor. And I guarantee to the listeners at home, finding somebody in your community who is Jewish who might not have a community you're by. I I know people who live in rural parts of America who drive over an hour to go to a synagogue because there's just nothing near them. To take that prejudice towards the Jewish people, to either throw it out the window, which is hard for people to do, or to really learn and to talk to somebody, to get a personal experience from somebody, to hear my personal story, has changed a lot of people's opinions. I hope you can give the Jews a chance. It's a hard thing to say, but it's the truth.
SPEAKER_01I think it's a great thing to say. Well, with that, we're gonna wrap up and talk to you guys next time.
SPEAKER_00Thank you, Hannah. Bye bye.