Kesher Talk

To be a Jew: I'd like to comment on a few things. First, I would like to share with you folks something that happened in my class today (I teach an undergraduate sociology of religion course). We are starting our section on religion and the economy, and today we were simply generating many examples of the different ways religion participates in the economy. We came up with such diverse examples as its role in and being affected by 9-11 to entertainment industry boycotts to the simple need to pay utility bills and keep up the building of your respective church/synagogue/etc. One of my students shared a story with us about a church that would contact the relatives of members who had not attended services in awhile. These relatives were told that the church lost x amount of money due to the absence of this particular member. It was suggested that the relatives pay that x amount of money in order to keep the member on the official membeship roster! OUCH!

Interesting story # 2 about another church: a church was running a children's campaign as part of a larger building fund. The children were told that they needed to go home and ask thier parents to give money to the church to support the building! OUCH*2! It's amazing to think about religion in such economic terms! What happened to the beliefs, spirituality, community, etc.?

This brings me to my rant about The New York Times op-ed that Howard emailed me today. I don't know if I am a "bad Jew" for feeling this way, but I very much agree with this author would sounds like he is frustrated that some Jews appear to be more concerned about the numbers of people who call themselves "Jew" rather than being concerned with the substance of the religion. I have never cared about numbers, but by what is in people's hearts. A jew by name only, just to be labeled a jew, really doesn't mean a whole lot to me. My personal interest has always been in jewish values, especially the social justice and taking care of your fellow person aspect. I also think it's one of the most loving and logical set of beliefs out there. For these reasons, I have always been proud to call myself Jewish. However, I recognize that the number of Jews in the world is dwindling and this is a serious problem for many people. I remeber when I was 15 sitting in a sunday school class listening to my sunday school teacher telling me how important it was to marry a Jew. I raised my hand and asked why wasn't love more important. I don't recall her being able to answer me. The point being, I love the values and beliefs and rituals associated with Judaism. Personally, I think having those substantive qualities is far more important than a title. But, this is only my opinion and recognize that many people feel differently. One last thing, I have never cared to call judaism a race. The author of this article points out that Judaism being treated as a race was done so for the purpose of persecution. Ok i'm done! :)

posted by Rachel @ 11/20/2002 03:09:29 PM