Jewish Orthodox mum AMA

[jewishorthomum]

I'm a 29 yr old Jewish Orthodox religious mum of 2 little boys. Is there anything you'd like to ask about Orthodox Jewish life?
Kill my time whilst I'm waiting to be called in for an appointment.
(When I get called in for my app I'll have to run but will try respond later if there are questions.)

@JeweyJew you do realize that reform, masorti converts do not care whether you think they are Jewish or not. my DH learnt the hard way that snobby and bigoted people don't change their opinion of you just because you jumped through their hoops. His mum converted under the London Beit Din, he went to a chabad lubavitch school. His first girlfriend was Jewish, guess what her parents told him- you are a Christian, just like your mother.

Why please people who take pride in being snobby. Its better to just find an inclusive community and cut out all the drama and live in the real world.

I didn't say people shouldn't try to assimilate or should live in ghettos. I am assimilated. I said it doesn't make any difference to racists.

I am getting a massive sense of hostility, anger and hatred from your posts, and I don't think I can usefully respond to anything you've said, because your posts just emanate anger and resentment.

@meshuggeneh I understand context is very important when interpreting religious scriptures. I found the quotes the other posted posted from the Talmud to be quite worrying, are they really from the Talmud or just made up?

There are definitely Jewish women’s refuges in London, although I’m not sure about communities in Manchester and other cities.

Hopefully this thread will stay on track as the informative and peaceful discussion that it started as!

I see some posts have been deleted already, and assume it is for anti semitism. I would like to ask Jewish women here would you prefer to have these posts deleted as being offensive, or if they would prefer them to stand so posters can see the prevalence of the anti semitic attitudes and insults that Jews encounter so often?

(not just talking about this thread but really anywhere on MN)

For myself, I prefer them to stand and not be deleted - poster cautioned by MN maybe? Or perhaps the post highlighted as breaking Talk Guidelines but staying for the record (so to speak!).

There is also so much covert anti semitism that flies under the radar and is often worded as a "genuine" question or statement and it can be very hard for others to detect this unless they are so used to facing it! Not much to be done about that except raise it so other posters ca. realise, maybe.

But there will always be overt anti semitism and my question is if Jews would prefer these posts to be deleted, or remain to demonstrate the extent of anti semitism, and the attitudes Jews have to deal with in RL.

I would myself prefer them to stand to be honest, but I understand and respect why others wouldn't.

I have Jewish friends that I am very close with and love like family,

nah.

and I've never heard anyone use the term 'goyim' except antisemites.

Are there any rules about the sort of literature you can read? I mean novels mainly, but non fiction too, I suppose.

@Parkingt111
It's a common anti semitic trope to misquote the talmud (as is indeed done to muslims with the koran).
I'm not a talmudic scholar so don't know the ins and outs myself. This website explains those passages and provides context and how the talmud is actually interpreted
https://www.angelfire.com/mt/talmud/

"Improperly dressed" woman?
Who gets to decide this?

@meshuggeneh thank you for the explanation and link
I will have a read

Obviously I also wonder if (for example) black people feel the same about deleting or keeping posts like JeweyJew's which are clearly offensive, so I may start a specific thread about this issue so all voices can be heard. I would like to keep this thread on track about Judaism in the spirit in which us was started.

@Ortiguilla I'm sorry it's coming across that way. I genuinely don't mean it to. I'm probably just phrasing things badly. I do appreciate your input and patience. I promise I'm not a hateful asshole, I'm just trying to understand something that's been bothering me for years and I thought this thread might help.
I'm not sure where ghettos came from but sorry if I mentioned that, I certainly didn't mean to.
I think racism comes from fear a lot of the time and is passed down. Whilst opening things up does reduce it massively, I do see your point.
Out of interest, I can't remember if this is correct but I remember learning something in RE about this. Do the Jewish people believe they'll always be persecuted because they're the chosen ones? Or have I mixed that up with something else?

I've found this thread amazing and fascinating. So many things I didn't know or understand and I loved learning so much, including various views and and about different sects.

I was exposed to antisemitic comments as a child, but never assimilated them or understood why Jews were seen as bad or viewed with distrust. However, because of it I can completely understand why they are wary and keep to themselves.

All I did was Google “what does the Talmud say about Goyim” and that website came up. It’s not exactly hidden knowledge that the Talmud has teachings that are very anti-non-Jews. I’m looking for an answer that puts my discomfort at ease, and you’re not giving me one.

I said that some of my closest friends are Jewish - two out of three of my best friends! Admittedly, neither of them are particularly practicing.

I don’t really appreciate being shamed for having a very genuine question that should be greeted with a genuine response.

RE: your whataboutery for other religions, this is an AMA started by an Orthodox Jewish woman. If there is something that makes you uncomfortable in the teachings of Christianity or Islam, then you can request an AMA from a mum who belongs to one of those religions. I would also expect a genuine response from them, rather than having them shame you for asking.

Do the people that wear the full traditional outfits, would they ever work outside of the community and wear 'mainstream' clothes and then dress traditionally in their own time?

In Stamford Hill, I never saw a visibly jewish person working in Safeway, for instance.

Hi

one thing I asked a way back which I think must have been missed was do you / your children’s school teach them about other religions? I am from a minority Christian religion and feel it’s so important to learn about others faiths / belief systems. Ultimately we all have more in common then differences.

@Dodgeitornot
i think Jews believe they will always be persecuted because they always have been. Assimilated Jews too even though they thought they wouldn't be.

That's why zionism has such a strong hold with so many Jews and why so many support Israel as an entity even if many have concerns over the situation. For many, it's security. We won't be at the mercy of the world if another holocaust is brewing.

Regarding your beliefs, what do you mean by "There are too many undeniable truths"? Would you be able to give more detail on that?

@meshuggeneh That's quite sad :( The worry about not having your own base kind of reminds me of the traveller community. Obviously not the same thing but they are also at the mercy of the local landowners and laws, which change often.

@OneHurtSpaggettio
Bullshit. You googled a well-known anti semitic trope. Why would even think to google that? And use the term goyim? And i just googled it, among the antisemitic websites, there were a whole bunch of websites explaining why it is not true and an anti Semitic trope.
This was not an innocent question. Just like your question about religion and zionism wasn't innocent either and clearly came from an anti-zionist website. What did you google for that one?

I see more posts have been deleted since my query about letting them stand so really interested to hear other Jewish opinions on this.

I actually have a question as am actually learning so much myself (I didn't know about the reason behind prevalence of Volvos despite my family always owning them mostly I thought it was just because they were seen as very safe and all of us children could fit in the boot pre seatbelts and car seats

My question is I see so many Jewish men (they usually seem to be over 60ish) that seem to wear their keyring attached to their belt or over their clothing rather than in a pocket...they're usually large bunches of keys so it could just be too heavy to put in a pocket, or is there a specific reason behind this?

No, it’s not from a website, I literally said in my previous post that I found it strange that there were Israeli actors in the series Unorthodox (which I watched and had mixed feelings about) and I didn’t understand why they would act in a drama that clearly displays ultra Orthodox people negatively, which led me to look at whether there are conflicts between ultra Orthodox Jews and Israeli Jews, and I came across those articles.

Again, I was genuinely interested as to why Zionism seems to contradict these quotes, and would appreciate sources that show the opposite viewpoint. I also didn’t know that Zionism was a secular movement, so at least you’ve said one thing that I’ve learnt!

Surely it’s important to have open discussions about this stuff?

Perhaps it's another way they seek to repel unrelated women. 🤣

I am not sure what 'traditional' clothing you are talking about. Chassidic men wear specific traditional clothing, especially on shabbos. Orthodox women wear normal clothing you can buy in M&S or next, we might buy skirts from a Jewish shop since they may have a better selection of modest clothing, buts its nothing someone else wouldn't wear.

Retail is a difficult job for shomer shabbat people because of working on shabbos, also very religious people might prefer to work in a Jewish enviroment, so you are correct, I don't think I have ever seen an orthodox woman working in non Jewish shops in Stamford Hill.

“Perhaps it's another way they seek to repel unrelated women. 🤣

maybe it’s for all the Volvos they have! Now you can only put three DC in the back and none in the boot