Jewish Film?

Today in class, we viewed a film that was called "The Tribe." It had the type of feel of a documentary, but I feel that it was more of an expose' on how people understand Jewish identity from within and without the particular "tribe" of people. At the end of class we were all asked whether or not we would classify the film as Jewish or not. I believe I was the only person in the class that would not consider this movie to be Jewish. But why was it that I took this stance? Since taking this F359 class, I have been finding myself questioning if there really can be any genres of anything. In looking at Jewish film, I do not think that it exists for a few reasons. The film we watched today was about Jewish identity as well as directed by a Jewish director, Tiffany Shlain. But does the fact that a film is about a certain topic such as Jewish identity or focus mainly on Jewish characters make a film Jewish? Does the fact that a Jew directed or produced a film make it Jewish? I argue that it doesn't. If we wanted to be politically correct, I feel that the best way to classify these types of films would be to say that these are films which address certain cultural, religious, or value aspects of Judaism, or are films which have been produced or directed by a Jewish person. Can cultures classify as a genre? What about this case... would one look for a movie like Schindler's List in a Drama section or a Jewish section? Would you do the same with the Passion of the Christ, except that you would find it in a Christian section? In the case of Schindler's List, the fact that the film was made about a predominantly Jewish event and produced by a Jewish director does not, I feel make it a Jewish film.

What is Reality?

Recently, there was a class discussion that revolved around Second Life which was highly controversial. Second Life is a program that allows users from all over the world to interact with other users in all kinds of simulated environments. Some of these simulated environments are religious in nature. Such places include different kinds of temples, churches, and shrines, including the West Wall in Jerusalem. The main issue here was whether or not participating in organized online religious events would be considered valid in the "real world." The class was pretty much split down the middle as far as agreeing and disagreeing with the validity of the action. Personally, I sided with the class that said, for example, that attending a Shabbat online could be equated with attending a Shabbat at a nearby Temple. One of the main issues that I felt was permeating the conversation was the question of "what is reality?" Many people in the class against the claim of the validity of lets say an online worship service like a Shabbat was that the service was not "real." The service was in a "dream world." Others on the opposite side of the fence claimed that if you truly believe in your heart that you did something or experienced something than it was real and valid regardless of anything anyone else said. In the case of attending an online worship service like a Mass or Shabbat, I felt that many people were focusing on the idea of intent, and if you in your heart intended to go to a traditional worship service, you could just go online and be justified. I feel that there is a fallacy in this reasoning. I do not feel that there is any person on this earth who would agree with this sentence: actually getting on a plane and flying to Paris, France and touching the Eiffel Tower is the same as going online, signing on to Second Life, and having your character teleport to the "Paris Environment" and "touching" the animated tower. In the end, I feel that intent to do something can be a good thing that can lead to fruitful actions. As some have argued, having "Jewish" environments in the game can help those searching for the Truth or trying to learn more about a particular religion can be lead to it for the first time or back to it after it had been a while. But just because I have the intent of doing something and have simulated actually doing it in a fantasy world does not give me the right to say I have actually experienced it in "reality."

On a New York Times Article

Recently, there was a New York Times article published that had to do with a Vatican Cardinal defending a prayer that asked for a conversion for the hearts of Jews. Jewish Organizations like the American Jewish Committee and Anti-Defamation League were not happy at all about this because there is an underlying message that states that Jews should recognize Jesus Christ as the savior of all men, including the Jews. In this article, the dialogue gives us insight into the identity into the parties involved. Cardinal Walter Kasper defends the prayer on the grounds of he does not feel that any group of people, including the Jews, have any right to tell Catholics (in this case) what is OK to pray for, even if someone might find something offensive in it. It seems too that the Jewish Organizations who protested the prayer felt that their right to believe what they desired was being encroached upon by interpreting a prayer to mean that the Jews must consider Jesus Christ as their Savior. One of the Jewish groups that protested is the Anti-Defamation League, which was established to "secure justice and fair treatment to all citizens alike and to put an end forever to unjust and unfair discrimination against and ridicule of any sect or body of citizens." Because one of the main purposes of this group is to act out against discrimination and injustice toward Jews and human beings as a whole, they feel that they are being treated unjustly or in a discriminating way. I, however, do side with the side of the Cardinal for several reasons. First, I do not feel that anybody, secular or religious, has the right to tell any group of people what is OK and not OK to pray for. Secondly, if the ADL was being consistent in their stated philosophy, they would speak out against the rest of the same Good Friday petitions that pray for the conversion of the hearts of non-practicing Catholics, Protestants, Muslims, Buddhists, agnostic, and atheists as well as the Jewish to the Truth.

On the Cultural Jewish Movement

One of the most fascinating aspects of being enrolled in a class that focuses on Jewish Identity is just that--learning about what it means to be Jewish in todays world. Before I enrolled in this class, I was under the assumption that there was basically one Jewish faith and values system. I had heard of the main movements including reform, conservative, and orthodox, but I could not believe just how different from one another each of them were.
In life, we as humans are always comparing new, different, and unseen things and ideas to aspects of our life that we are familiar with in order to make sense of the thing we have just learned or seen. In my studies and discoveries in the realm of Judaism, I have found myself comparing the separate sections of Judaism with that of the Protestant movements or denominations of Christianity. I do this for several reasons. Just like every denomination of Protestantism identifying themselves as Christian but have major fundamental differences, I am seeing the same qualities in the realm of Judaism. For instance, a difference that absolutely blew my mind was the issue of what is central to Jewish identity. Since I have seen that in the Torah the Jewish people came into being through a covenant between God and the patriarchs. So, when I discovered that there was a movement called Cultural Judaism that did not only not have God at the center of its philosophies and teachings and as the basis on which the movement stood, it even defines God as being an "idea" that was invented by man a way to think of spiritual life. This in turn led me to other questions concerning modern Jewish movements (particularly Cultural Judaism): then what is Spiritual Life? What is the human Spirit? From where did it come? Even as an outsider of the Jewish faith (however, Christianity would not have existed if it were not for the Jewish faith), to see any facet of Judaism without God as, at least, a driving force in its existence and identity is counter-intuitive and, in my opinion, begs one to ask the question, is it even Judaism?