Tag: judaism

Despite almost no mention of God or religion, the filmmakers of "Groundhog Day" made one of the more spiritual films of the era. “You can argue about whether it is a Buddhist, Christian or Jewish movie — but it is deeply religious,” said author and Boston University religion professor Stephen Prothero, who has shown the film in his classes.

The 19th annual Spokane Jewish Cultural Film Festival has arrived and will take place Jan. 28-30 in person at the Jepson Center. The festival will also take place online Jan. 28-Feb. 5.

I believe I’m seeing far more evil in the world than ever before in my lifetime. There’s a constant barrage of antisemitism, gun violence, racism and homophobia. And not only is there a lack of empathy, but there’s a gleeful viciousness about it from perpetrators. However, for this piece, I’m going to focus specifically on the evil I’m seeing in response to COVID.

The recent SpokaneFāVS series on “The Evil in this World” may have missed something. Evil is certainly abundant; multiple examples are provided. But how much is focused on what may be the most common evil of all — lying? This simple act ranges from the deliberate whopper to nuanced shading of truth, from military propaganda to religious leaders denying child molestation to rationalization.

This is the third and final installment in my crowd-sourced series where Jewish people share things we wish non-Jews understood. In the previous two articles in the series, we covered things like Chanukah, horns, antisemitism and the wide variety of belief within Judaism. In this article, we’ll get songs stuck in your head, make you are of the Jewish disdain for the phrase, “Judeo-Christian” and point out that Judaism is its own whole set of beliefs independent of other religions.

Last week’s commentary “for non-Jews on Judaism” by Hyphen Parent caught my interest. I’m not Jewish. Never was. I was raised Episcopalian, embraced agnosticism for more than a decade and settled into the Baha’i Faith for the last half-century. Along the way I’ve always admired the rich cultural heritage of my many Jewish friends.

I was asked to share something important about Judaism that non-Jews might not know. So many possible answers raced through my mind! I had a very difficult time narrowing it down. So I posed the question to Jewish friends of all branches and observance and I’ve compiled their results. I’m presenting their answers along with their names and notes about which branches of Judaism they identify with.