This past week in my meeting with Maya I learned more Hebrew words, but more importantly learned about the culture of Judaism. In our hour long session we learned of the difference between the Ashkenazi and Sephardic Jews. The Ashkenazi Jews come from Europe, while the Sephardic Jews come from Africa. The Ashkenazi are the elitist group of Jews, while the Sephardic are treated as a secondary group of people. For several years the tensions have been high between the two religious sects. At least 20 years ago the tensions were as high as the civil rights movement seen in the United States, with the Sephardic Jews wanting to be treated as equals. Much like the relations between whites and blacks have become peaceful, the relationship between the Sephardic and Ashkenazi Jews is less tense. However, from my tutor’s personal opinion the Ashkenazi still feel like they are better then the Sephardic’s.
Another interesting thing about Judaism overall is that the Jewish religion represents less than 1% of the world population. Christianity is the leading religion with 2.1 billion members, while Judaism makes up only 14 million people. It is clear that such tragic events like the Holocaust put a severe damper on the growth of the religion.
Each week I have made it a goal to learn one new interesting fact about Israel, the Hebrew language, or the Jewish religion. So far I have been successful in accomplishing this goal.
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