HAVA NAGILA

 

Ghert-Zand, R. (2012). How ‘Hava Nagila’ Became a Global Hit. Retrieved from: http://forward.com/articles/159148/how-hava-nagila-became-a-global-hit/?p=all

 

Loeffler, J. (2010). Hava Nagila’s Long, Strange Trip. Retrieved from: http://www.myjewishlearning.com/culture/2/Music/Israeli_Music/Folk_Music/Hava_Nagila.shtml?p=1

 

 

This is one of hundreds of the world’s popular songs, which has its importance expressed by the statement “It turned out that ‘Hava Nagila’ is an amazing portal to 150 years of Jewish history, culture, and spirituality” (Groosman, cited in Ghert-Zand, 2012).

So What makes Hava Nagila such a popular song? When listening to this song, it is easy to find other cultures’ and traditions’ melodies. These melodies were amalgamated into Jewish culture by Idelsohn who was a musician and lived in Russia, Berlin and Leipzig before settling in Jerusalem after 1905. He was seeking to collect and preserve the folk music of various Jewish communities from around the world, by using a phonograph to record the traditional melodies of Yemenite, Russian, German, Moroccan Jewish and those of other countries. Hereby, he encountered these melodies in Jerusalem. Moreover, he pioneered a new style of modern national music in Palestine, and organised and composed many new Hebrew-language songs based on traditional melodies. Thus, these modern songs with ancient origins rapidly became popular as Hebrew folk songs, and one of them is Hava Nagila.

 

Although Hava Nagila is a favorite song at weddings, bar and even non-Jewish culture events around the world, in 1918, after the British army had defeated the Turks in Palestine, it was selected as the tune for a celebration concert performance in Jerusalem. Moreover, arranging the melody in four melodical parts, there were added a Hebrew text derived from the Psalms by Idelsohn:

 

 

Hava nagila, hava nagila                           Let us rejoice, let us rejoice

Hava nagila ve-nismeha                             Let us rejoice and be glad

Hava neranena, hava neranena                 Let us sing, let us sing

Hava neranena ve-nismeha                        Let us sing and be glad

Uru, uru ahim                                            Awake, awake brothers

Uru ahim be-lev sameah                            Awake brothers with a joyful heart

 

The words echo the biblical verse: “This is the day that God has made. We will rejoice and be glad in it” – “Ze ha-yom asah adonai, nagila ve-nismeha bo” (Psalms 118:24) (Loeffler, 2010).

 

Hereby, the song clearly makes one understand the portal of Jewish history, culture and spirituality, and its amazingness, despite it seeming to only be a a music which is used at Jewish weddings, and celebrations. Moreover, since the melodies of the song were inspired from many cultures, it has become a popular song around the world. Thus, it is hard to understand that this song belongs to the Jewish people.

 

 

THE LOST SHUL MURAL

The Lost Shul Mural
http://lostshulmural.org/

This is a most popular mural in Judaism which was painted in 1910 by a Lithuanian Jewish immigrant artist Ben Zion Black for the East European Orthodox Chai Adam congregation in Burlington, Vermont. The mural depicts the Ten Commandments which are guarded by two lions, floating above is a wonderful golden crown which symbolizes God, sunlight permeates the painting, and the work is framed by architectural elements and elaborate curtains.

The significant thing is that the mural really reminds Jewish people who they are, especially for immigrant Jews in Switzerland. Since, it is like a gift from the past that adds color, vitality, and the immediacy of piety. The mural is a survival, not only an art for the Jewish people. Due to this, it makes a priceless contribution to the larger legacy of Jewish culture that was largely destroyed in the Holocaust. Also, the same mural is painted other synagogues so that it continues presence

Briefly, this is most significant mural which takes place in many synagogues. The significance of the mural is not only from religious side, also it includes Jewish culture.

JEWISH TWEETS

https://twitter.com/JewishTweets

This is a verified account in twitter, which means to establish and authenticity for the identities of key individuals and brands on Twitter. The account has approximately 44,900 followers and following about 11,400 accounts. The account name is “Jewish Tweets” and is all about Jewish lifestyle. The account provides to bring Jewish Treats and the Shabbat across America. They share daily religious things, news about Israel, Jewish events and quotes. That is why it is beneficial to follow the account by Jews, as their social media is very common. Also, the account includes extremist religious events and any controversial issues about other religions.

Moreover, there is also a blog, an instagram and a facebook account. The blog is very beneficial if you do not clearly understand from tweets, the illustrative and more information in the blog, the beneficial religious quotes are in instagram and also the facebook have same shares as twitter account and the blog.

To sum up, this account is very useful account for Jewish people to follow, since it shares everything about Jewish lifestyle, daily religious quotes and news about Israel.

SHABBAT

http://youtu.be/36TUsB4SJXc

The video is about one of the worships of the Jewish people which is the Shabbat. Shabbat is the weekly worship that is celebrated every week from sundown on Friday to nightfall of Saturday. The video greatly explains what is the Shabbat and why/how it is celebrated every Friday.

In Hebrew, Shabbat means “resting”. According to Jewish belief and as is recounted in the beginning of the Book of Genesis, God created the world in six days and on the seventh day He refrained from creating. The first Shabbat was celebrated in the Garden of Eden by Adam and Eve

The purpose of the video is to show step by step how Jews celebrate the Shabbat with samples from real-life. According to the video, all family members have a responsibility to do during Shabbat. For example; in Friday afternoon with the lighting of candles by women and girls, men come home with a bunch of flowers and do all the prayers.

Briefly, this video has very beneficial parts that show Jewish religious life, and is clearly explained. Shabbat is a time to regroup and party, to eat and rejoice, to spend time with family and friends, to study and share thing that indulge and pamper their spiritual side. Moreover, It should be noted that the video may arouse the interests of non-Jewish people as the comments of the video show positively in this way. The reason for this could be that the video can be made real-life.

THE DEATH OF JEWISH CULTURE

 

Loeffler, J. (May, 2014). The Death of Jewish Culture. Mosaic Magazine. Retrieved from: http://mosaicmagazine.com/essay/2014/05/the-death-of-jewish-culture/

 

The article covers the death of the Jewish culture in America. Even though not so long ago, Jewish culture seemed to flourish in America. The loss of culture is concerned by Jewish people and others alike, and the author sought to how the Jewish culture has been turned the opposite when it seemed to flourish in America.

 

The author supports that starting to look back at the history of Jewish culture might be useful to clearly understand how all signs pointed in the negative way even, Jewish culture seemed to flourish. In this way, the author covers the topic in four issues which are: Shofar to Clarinet, the flowering of Jewish culture, Jewish culture comes to America, and What’s missing today.

 

To sum up, it is useful to read this article not only to gain knowledge about Jewish culture, but also its history. Since the article includes historic information, it is beneficial to read. Thus, the reader gets more information about Jewish culture.

JEWISH FORUM

http://www.thehebrewcafe.com/forum/index.php

 

Forums are effective areas of discussion on the Internet. It is easy to find out discussion forms about anything. However, it should be considered that the discussion forms should be used actively. For Judaism, the Hebrew Café is a Jewish Forum which is based on Judaism. The forum was opened in 2002, and is actively using by nearly 350 members.

 

When analyzing the forum, it is easy to find any information about Judaism. Also, members may share their knowledge to each other. On the other hand, the ‘World Religion’ forum does not contain sufficient discussion, because many members may be Jewish and be a supporter of biased and pro-Jewish idologies. It could be easily understood by looking at the overall content of the forum, and discussions.  In discussion, Jewish people act so brutal and scornful to non-Jewish people.

 

Also, most of the discussion of inter-religious is between Judaism and Christianity. Because of the most Christian people is wondering what is the Judaism and want to learn difference between Judaism and Christianity.

JEWISH MUSEUM OF AUSTRALIA

http://www.jewishmuseum.com.au/

 

The Jewish Museum of Australia was establish in 1982 and was located in the synagogue of the Melbourne Hebrew Congregation, South Yarra, for thirteen years. In 1992 the Jewish Museum of Australia purchased a building in Alma Road, St Kilda, and on 20 August 1995 the Jewish Museum of Australia was officially opened by the then Governor General Bill Hayden.

 

The purpose of the museum is to engage people with Jewish culture. Hereby, a community would embrace and respect cultural variety and difference in which Jews feel proud of, feel connected and knowledgeable about their heritage and may confidently represent their identities in a contemporary Australian context, and in which Jewish culture is accepted and appreciated by the wider Australian community.

The collection of the Jewish Museum of Australia consists of over 20000 objects and stories which tell the continuum of Jewish life and what it means to be Jewish in Australia. Most of the objects have come from people’s own life experiences or those of their forbearers.

 

Archives and Sub-collections:

– HMT Dunera and Internment collection

– The Jews in Shanghai prior to and during World War II collection

– Personal family archives documenting life in Europe and the migration and settlement processes

– Kalman Katz Coin Collection

– The Archives of Rabbi J L Gurewicz

– Schmatte Business Collection – Jews in the garment trade

– Photographs and records of Jewish life in regional Victoria in the 19th century

– Charles Aisen Sculpture Collection

 

Moreover, the museum claims that it has some strategic goals, since it has a significant and accessible collection of objects and stories that represents the width of Jewish culture and Australian Jewish life. Additionally, it has creative and stimulating exhibitions and programs. This is the most effective on Jewish people, since they educate and engage them intellectually, emotionally and spiritually. These exhibitions may follow via facebook, twitter, and instagram, so it can be understood what kind of activities exactly they do.

JEWISH JOURNAL

http://www.jewishjournal.com/religion

The Jewish Journal is America’s most widely used Jewish news site, and also is the largest Jewish weekly newspaper in the United States outside of New York City. Their mission is to inform, connect and enlighten the Jewish community through independent journalism. Therefore, it is focused on local, national and global Jewish news, issues and culture. Also, it is underlined that it is not affiliated with any organization, ideology or movement.

Moreover, it should be noted that it is not easy to find a completely religious journalistic account about Judaism. Many journalistic accounts include Jewish news, culture and religion, due to the Jewish diaspora all over the world, and journalistic accounts cover the Jewish news. This news completely about the Jewish people.

From the religious perspective, the website includes religious news. Since it is the most widely used Jewish news site, the religious topics are generally based on contemporary issues and religious days and events. There are many beneficial topics about religious events.

The religious topics are generally written by Rabbis who are teachers of the Torah. The word ‘Rabbi’ derives from the Hebrew word which means “My Master”, which is the way of a student would address a master of Torah. Most of the religious topics are written by them. Since the journalistic account mostly concerns Jewish people who live in America, many religious events are related to the difference between Judaism and Christianity.  It is beneficial to relate the difference between both religions, because Jewish people who live in America may easily be affected by Christian culture.  Also, there is a beneficial example about impacting Jewish culture from Easter in the website.

In conclusion, although this journalistic account does not completely address about religious events, it covers good religious issues. Also, it is not easy to find only religious journal accounts, because of most of the accounts attach importance to Jewish news all around the world.

JUDAISM IN AUSTRALIA

Rubinstein, W. D. (1995). Multicultural Australia. Canberra: Bureau of Immigration. Retrieved from http://www.multiculturalaustralia.edu.au/doc/rubinsteinwd_1.pdf

 

 

The research is about Judaism in Australia that was written in 1995 by Rubinstein who is a member of the community of Multicultural and Population Research/Australia Government. The majority of the research is based on the settlement of the Jewish community in Australia, and how the religious community of Jewish people developed.

 

Jewish settlement in Australia is clearly expressed, and also mentions the synagogues, which are Jewish houses of prayer. Even though the research was written in 1995, it also expresses the position of the general Jewish community that extends up to the present in Australia. It also mentions that the Jewish community is strongly supported by Israel.

 

However, the only engrossing thing in the research is Anti-Semitism. It was touched on the research but was not clearly mentioned. That is the why it may cause a question mark in people’s mind on how it started, and also how the Jewish community was enforced for what.

 

Briefly, the research gives understandable information about Jewish settlement and the formation of the Jewish community in Australia.

2014 Conference in Modern Jewish Thought Jewish Studies as Philosophy: Beyond Historicism and Sociology?

2014 CONFERENCE IN MODERN JEWISH THOUGHT

JEWISH STUDIES AS PHILOSOPHY: BEYOND HISTORICISM AND SOCIOLOGY?

                –March 23rd/25rd, Cambridge University–

http://www.modernjewishthought.group.cam.ac.uk/conferences/jewish-studies-as-philosophy

The Cambridge Project in the Modern Jewish Thought was organised at the conference: “Jewish Studies as Philosophy: Beyond Historicism and Sociology?” between 23rd and 25rd of March 2014. This three-day conference, it brought together historians, philosophers, theologians, lawyers and political theorists. In the conference, a total of 24 speakers assembled to critically discuss and debate the role of the Jewish Studies in the modern academy.

The conference is based on the Jewish studied since 1650, and Jews in the modern period have tended to downplay the lasting intellectual significance and potential philosophical relevance of the Jewish religious tradition through their employment of historicist or sociological methods. Thereby, the conference aimed to research whether this narrow focus is merely an accidental consequence of dominant scholarly methods, or whether is it representative of an underlying attitude towards the broader scope and relevance of Judaism and Jewish thought.

Thus, some questions occurred and were answered in the conference. One question was about “the field of ‘Jewish Studies’, such as: Can one approach the field through a focus on philosophical and theological elements? Is there a role for ‘Jewish philosophy’ or ‘Jewish theology’ in the academy? Can classical Jewish texts and liturgy present distinctive or innovative directions for contemporary philosophical reflection? Are there past thinkers whose reflections on Judaism and Jewish tradition can be seen as engaging with the broader philosophical thought of their time? Can such thinkers contribute to present-day intellectual and scholarly debates? Therefore, the conference consisted of ten panels. In each panel, the topic was discussed from different issues. When looking at the conference schedule, it may be understood that the Jewish Studies as Philosophy was deeply tackled by the speakers.

To sum up, the conference deeply covered the Jewish studies in philosophical manner,  in terms of academic perspective that includes modern Jewish thought. This is more of an academic conference, which does not appeal to people from every segment. In academic terms, the topic was discussed comprehensive sides as historical and modern time, even from religious perspective.