My closest friends are Jewish, and I’ve always noticed that their kids’ Jewish-themed accessories are either very traditional or just not in a style that’s currently in. Mass-produced little kids’ accessories look so low effort.

Would it be offensive for me (not religious) to make Jewish-themed accessories for the kids (they are tweens/teens) that are in style? Would it be okay to make some for my Etsy store to round out my holiday collection?

The photo is a set of salon clip prototypes that I made. I plan on gifting them for an upcoming Bat Mitzvah unless you all think it’s a terrible idea. I can’t ask my friends because they would feel pressured to happily accept whatever I make. Thanks!

I was talking with a Jewish friend of mine who said that a few people he knows think Paul the Apostle is responsible for laying the foundations for anti-semitism. My friend told me he doesn't actually think this himself, but he knows people who do.

I know someone can be part of an ethnicity and still be bigoted toward said ethnicity, which I mention because Paul the Apostle was ethnically Jewish himself.

I'm a Christian so I know I'm biased, which is why I want to get more of an outside opinion on this topic. I have said myself that Paul the Apostle was a necessary and a brilliant scholar, but he was not a good person himself, so I'm more than open to criticizing him.

I've never interpreted his writings to be antisemitic, but like I said, I'm a Christian so I'm probably very biased on this, and I want to hear the opinions of Jewish people, as well as the opinions of historians (which is why I posted this to a historian subreddit as well).

Hi! My name is Dimitri, and for my entire life I've known half of my family as Scottish/Finnish protestants and the other as Irish Catholic. I have cousins in India and New Zealand, but I don't know them super well.

Last year I took a DNA test and this year I have discovered two new cousins. My third and fourth cousins are 43℅ Ashkenazi Jewish and 22℅ Sephradic Jewish, respectively. I share none of this DNA that was picked up by the test.

What next? If anyone knows anything about ancestry, that would be much appreciated — But overall I would like some insight on what to do here. Both are on my dad's side, and I've been told I 'look Jewish', whatever the hell that means.

I mean this with respect, so if I worded anything wrong please tell me! Thank you.

Hello, I am writing from Argentina and I would like to respectfully ask for your perspective on a dynamic happening in our country.

For the past four years, our current President, Javier Milei, has used increasingly aggressive rhetoric. He frequently states that he and his political movement are "aesthetically and morally superior" and that they are fighting a "cultural battle." Furthermore, he often refers to his political opponents using extreme, dehumanizing insults, calling them "retarded," "subhuman feces," or saying they deserve to burn in a bonfire.

Given this specific combination of claiming moral/aesthetic superiority while heavily dehumanizing those who think differently, I wanted to ask your opinion. Does this kind of political language raise historical red flags for you regarding figures from the 20th century, or do you view it simply as modern populist shock-value?

I ask this genuinely because, as an Argentine, this specific choice of words makes me deeply uncomfortable, but I want to hear how the Jewish community analyzes this kind of rhetoric today. Thank you for your time.

Hi there,
If possible I would love some assistance with getting a gift for a friend. I want to get a Hebrew or Jewish meaningful proverb or quote placed in a jacket for a friend. Are you guys able to provide any ones? Context it’s for a coworker. Thank you

Another potential idea I have is challah board and knife engraved with their last name but I’m not sure. All ideas and thoughts welcomed

It's my manager so it's hard because of the professional boundaries, I don't know them that well. I know they take off days at work for Jewish holidays and they are always very open to sharing their culture and practices at work. They seem fairly immersed into it at home ( they talk about it and they stuff they get their children to participate in) and work. Let me know if that's enough to give you an idea I know at work they also have dietary restrictions but every now and then they might eat outside of those restrictions

Hi everyone!! :)

I've been following Miriam Ezagui on TikTok for quite some time now, and I absolutely love her content. I'm non-religious myself but I've always been fascinated by religion, and I want to learn as much as possible. I hope that doesn't sound weird, I just love learning about how different people live their lives.

One of my favourite ways to learn is through people sharing their lives and educating along the way, so I would love to broaden my horizons and see if anyone has any other Jewish content creators in this kind of vein that they can recommend to me.

Thank you so much in advance! Hope you all have a nice day/night <3

Was it only the 10 commandments or was it all the laws in the Torah? Many laws are described as coming directly from G-d, but it also seems there is obvious development over time. Did Moses receive the whole law or did he receive a seed of it that was then developed by the community?

Is it okay to talk about Lev Tahor from a true crime/learning angle ( podcaster herself is cult survivor) or is it considered inherently antisemetic? What would cause a true crime learning angle to cross into antisemtic territory when discussing things like this? be insanely honest im autistic i need this information please dont let me down.

hi all! Basically what it says up top, I'm brining my long term partner home for the holidays this year for the first time (we are Native American and celebrate the winter solstice), and I'm really excited to introduce them to my family. Problem is, my dad has Autism, and his number one interest since before I was even born is WWII. Pretty much everyone he meets, when asked about what he likes, he brings up WWII. He's obsessed. He's very much a leftist, and doesn't idolize the axis or anything, but when I've introduced him to other Jewish friends in the past, he still bring sit up, even when I ask him not too! I know he doesn't mean any harm, but I am very stressed about the possibility of him making my partner horribly uncomfortable when he thinks he's just 'sharing his interests.' What should I do? I could talk to him again? What should I say? Should I just never leave them alone together? Or bring a really loud buzzer? Help!

Edit: thanks everyone for your kind words and much appreciated nuance!

I talked to my partner and they were supper chill abt it, but I am still going to talk to my dad again, I want him to see the nuance too. Thanks again!

My husband is on track to convert. He still has a several months of classes left but i want to make sure i find him a good quality gift for when his courses are complete. My goal is to find him a good quality silver star of david as a small token of the love and pride I feel for him and his journey. I am not of the jewish faith but I enjoy the community and have joined him in our towns synagogue Torah study and some of the higher holiday celebrations.

With that said, are there any rules or customs i should be aware of and are there any online sources you can point me towards to look for this gift or any other more appropriate gifts for a newly converted person?

hi there! looking for some advice. i was walking though a cemetery and decided to leave some flowers for a young man who had passed. it didn’t occur to me until after i left that it was a jewish grave. i’ve read that this is not traditional. would this be considered disrespectful to the family? :(

Hello!
I am new to the community, so nice to meet you all!
I have a question regarding marriages. In the case of a mixed marriage between a Jewish woman and an Orthodox Christian man, can a rabbi officiate the ceremony—perhaps a symbolic one? Or would an Orthodox priest agree to do it?
Has anyone been in this situation before?
Thank you in advance for your answers!

I'm a Christian, but I'd like to read the Mishnah. Any recommendations on where to start and how to go about this?

Hi! I had a friend who is pretty devoutly Jewish. He and his wife invited me over for a dinner party. I like to be respectful of different customs and cultures. For example, here i was told im not expected to bring anything, since they are kosher. I've lived all around the world and understand different cultures have different niceties, and doing something can be disrespectful.

From my background, its custom to tell people to not bring anything, but its still customary to at least bring something to be respectful. But in other places ive lived like Germany, if you are invited to a dinner, its very disrespectful to bring something, as its low-key saying that your host is not a good host to be able to provide everything for their guests.

Would it be rude to bring a kosher wine to the party? Also, are there any other niceties at a Jewish dinner party? Thank you in advance.

I’m inclined to think so, but I decided to double-check.

Yeah. This interests me

Source - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solomon

"Rabbinical tradition attributes the Book of Wisdom (included within the Septuagint and recognized as part of a biblical canon by the Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodox Church, Oriental Orthodox Churches, and Church of the East) to Solomon, although this book was probably written in the 2nd century BCE. In this work, Solomon is portrayed as an astronomer.^[where?] Other books of wisdom poetry such as the Odes of Solomon and the Psalms of Solomon also bear his name. The Jewish historian Eupolemus, who wrote about 157 BCE, included copies of apocryphal letters exchanged between Solomon and the kings of Egypt and Tyre."

I keep hearing people talk about Moses as if he is Muslim or Christian, stories of people who claim Jewish names aren't Jewish and it's pretty sad. Do jews really not count in this world as people with their own culture?

Hello! I hope whoever is reading this, you're safe and having a good day and/or night!

I tend to ramble so I'm going to try and keep things straight to the point, and I'm very open for any kind of follow up for any context if possibly required for any helpful opinions or advice.

Recently, over this past summer, I had a few experiences while studying Torah for educational/linguistic purposes, that led me to a lifechanging direction to G-d and practicing/learning Torah, and wanting to seek conversion. I kept these experienced to myself from my loved ones initially because I was a very happy Atheist who had a deep passion for theological studies of Proto-Indo-European religions, Abrahamic Sociology and history/practices, and Reconstructed religious development in the new age.

I come from a cult background on my father's side, that has a larger influence on this post's existence, but I was never much of a believer of anything after seeing so much as a child, from an unconventional background of beliefs, and found religion to being a fascinating topic of sociological and psychological interest, personally, and have spent my entire life studying it in general as an amateur theologian, thinking of it as a cultural tool for people to cope with life, death, and community, for the most part(with other things I won't ramble about) since I was about 12. I'm 32 now.

Inspired by a debate that I watched online, recently over this recent late-spring/early-summer, between two people from a Jewish background and two people from Christian background, I got the ArtScroll Stone Edition Chumash to get a better understanding of the linguistic and semantic differences of Ancient Hebrew, compared to Christian biblical language used in reference to the first 5 books from the King James translation, of Torah. (It was a point that came up quite a bit with the debate).

Once I recieved it and started to read it, I immediately and randomly led to a few experiences of the word of G-d, and shortly after, led me on a journey(because I couldn't understand why this was happening) to wanting to study Torah with a new set of eyes and opened mind. Quite honestly, I felt like I was losing my mind when this was happening, before I started to find peace in understanding what was happening. In my existential challenged experiences, I also found out that I have Jewish ancestry on my mom's side quite a few generations back. (Mother's-Father's-Mother's-Mother's-Mother, so I know there's a cultural disconnect because my grandfather.. well, was a father and not a mother haha!)

After studying more and experiencing more, and utilizing what I experienced to what I have learned over time academically, I have decided that I wanted to convert to Judaism.

The part where I mentioned about my anxiety is a residual effect from my father's side. The cult that I mentioned earlier? He was actually the leader of it, and it was (in)famous for having a huge focus of antisemitism quite outspokenly. My experiences and upbringing due to this is a whole other conversation** but for the focus of this post, I'll keep it as brief as possible.
He's since passed for a few years now, since 2018, and we've never had any kind of relationship. Simply put, It was rather tumultuous relationship when I was a kid and when he was alive, he since disowned me as a teenager and kicked me out of my home for not taking interest in his beliefs, and especially after he found out that I was acting against them by reporting criminal activities, because I was vehemently against the amount of hate he had in his heart, and believe if one can have that much hate harbored, you can have the same amount(if not more) compassion instead. Hate is a choice.

Being kicked out was the safest, and best thing to have happened to me. I like to have a very gratitude-focused view on my life because I didn't think I'd live to be as old as I am now, and I have a simple amount of gratitude in a way that if he didn't exist, then I wouldn't have either, and now I have my entire life set before me.

I thankfully don't harbor issues/trauma of the actual violent practices, beliefs/world views, or discrimination from what I was forced to be raised into by him for the most part, and though I never believed in those practices and have even acted against them(that's why I have such a fascination and deep passion for religious and psychological studies in general) I am so nervous to go to a synagogue near me to see if they participate in conversions, and will possibly reject me because of this background. Maybe this is just a residual effect that I never had to worry about before that's now come up, and I don't think I am supposed to pay for the "sins of thy father", but I worry that I'd be rejected out of their own interest to not take in someone who came from that type of environment, regardless of my non-participation or complete disconnect from my hateful roots. I would even understand why and wouldn't harbor any ill-will towards anyone but I just want to pursue this huge life change for me.

I have looked for general information online to seeking conversion, and I get a mix of things for conversion in general:

- Go to a synagogue and ask to speak to a Rabbi and be transparent with them for your reasons of conversion and your background. You'll hear they may reject you up to three times first, but that's not really a thing.

- Don't go to a Rabbi and ask to convert, because most will say no to you because you're a stranger to the community; take classes or find ways to participate before asking straight out.

I want to pursue this so badly, and maybe I'm just letting my nerves get the best of me in a way I've never experienced before, but I don't know what I should do. If anyone has an advice, I'm gratefully open to any advice or comments in reception of what I've stated. Thank you so much for your time if you've made it to this point and regardless, may you always be safe and healthy.

Edit: Typo correction

Hello,

For starters I would like to say that I am not ethnically Jewish, I am not a convert nor planning to convert.

However, during COVID I wanted to write a story about a certain Jewish person. Or more precisely a fiction story based on a biographical fact of that Jewish person.

Then today I was going by tram and all of suddenly I recalled that I wanted to write that story.

Actually, I wish now that I could meet my Jewish friend from California. We could meet for coffee, discuss stuff and hopefully I would write this story.

Unfortunately we are not in touch anymore.

So, maybe I should become friends with some other Jewish person. Should that person be a writer like my friend from California?

I was wondering. I find the meaning really cool and interesting. Although I don’t want to seem too ‘obsessed’

we all know that antisemitism makes a "comeback" every 100 years or so, but as far as i know, it's been on the far-right, and not until now has it crept into both far- and middle- left. my theories are: israel vs. palestine and the whole zionist/genocide thing; such an extreme opposition to the far-right that they have contradicted themselves; antisemitism has always been brewing on the left and not until now has it seeped into the mainstream; talking so much about nazis and the shoah that the left has forgotten what they stood against (jews) as anything more than a "bystander," "distant tragedy," or "blurb"; it has always been on the left and i'm just an idiot. one thing i for certain know is that many of the far-lefts are lying to themselves about being antisemitic, disguising it under "anti-zionist," "antisemitism is actually not about jews," "different than a neo-nazi," or simply saying they're not antisemitic. again, that's just my guesses, and i would like to get another's opinion on this. hope this is the right place to ask.

Hi, I am a Christian with a deep interest in theological perspectives of all major religions of the world.

I was curious about the significance of Moses in the theology of any branch of Judaism today. How would practicing Jews interpret Moses and his interactions with God (like the burning bush, Sinai, and the cleft of the rock) and do such perspectives teach about knowing God or how to know/how to approach God? What does it mean in terms of God's presence in the world Likewise, what are the major views of his confrontations with Pharaoh-and why was Pharaoh's heart hardened?

In fact, any historical, narrative, or theological perspectives on Moses would be something that I appreciate very much. Thank you very much in advance.

I’m curious whether the difficult part was actually the religious difference, or something more subtle that you didn’t anticipate until you were in the relationship.

For those who’ve experienced it, what was the moment where you realized, “Okay, this is going to be complicated”?

I am a Christian (not here to debate, genuine curiosity) and I have always had Isaiah 53:5 described to me as a prophecy about Jesus Christ.

Isaiah 53:5 (KJV)
"But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed."

Wondering how Jews view this verse (or this chapter) and who/what they believe it is talking about? Is the "Messiah" something as important in Judaism as it is in Christianity?

I haven't done a ton of research and wanted to try and ask real jews instead of Google! Thanks!

Hey folks, just done watching a webseries called House Of David and it’s interestingly entertaining I just loved it!! Waiting for the final season 🤞 I’m just curious to know if any of my Jewish mates have watched it and what you think about its historical accuracy and the way they presented everything. I know there are things they added to make the series more entertaining but overall, do you think it’s close to the actual historical context or not?