RiDL

RiDL form #1

Religion in Daily Life Report
Title of document or event	Shabbat Dinner for ECSU Hillel
Reporter:	Brian Levy
Date, Time of the Event	Friday, January 28 · 6:00pm – 7:30pm
Report Citation:	N/A
Please provide a short summary of this event:	This was a Shabbat Dinner hosted by the Hillel here at Eastern. The dinner took place at the night house and featured Chicken Marsala and beef brisket for entrees. The food was great and the people in the club make the atmosphere amazing.
How did this document, event display the role of religion in daily life?	This event was hosted by the Hillel, and is a weekly tradition in the Jewish religion to have a large feast right before the Sabbath, at the end of the week.
How did this document, event reflect diversity in human life?	This event was opened to everyone Jewish or not in order to encourage humility, and spread the word about Hillel, to get more support and plans for the future.
How did it reflect/influence your studies at Eastern?	It comforts me to know that so far, where ever I go, there’s always someone Jewish.
What do you want to learn, do after participating in this event or with this document?	I don’t necessarily want to learn anything other than the fact that there’s people I can connect with in the student body.

Sunflower: Three Responses

The first response I read was by Sven Alkalaj. Sven discussed the fact that despite the Nuremberg Trials after World War Two, human nature failed to learn anything after the holocaust. Despite the atrocities that took place, history repeated itself in Serbia in the 1990’s. Sven, is Serbian and remembers vivid details of Serbian snipers waiting for anyone, man woman, or child, to walk into their cross hairs in order to the trigger, the only way in out of the city being through a small tunnel, and the constant fear of death that you, shocking as it may be, learn to live with. These events are not the same in nature however draw close comparisons. Either way Sven believes in forgiving, however never under any circumstance, forgetting. He also mention that forgiveness is not so just sociopaths can sleep at night, its so the truly guilty and remorseful, can receive the piece of mind to know they attempted to cleanse themselves of wrongdoing. Despite having differing views from Alkalaj, I understand where he is coming from. However, how do you ensure that someone is truly empathetic or sympathetic to our lives?

 

The second response I read was that of Robert McAfee Brown. Brown beliefs that one should never forgive or forget, and arrives at this conclusion courtesy of visiting the monument in Warsaw in 1978 of all the Jews who were lost. The speakers that day, made an entire speech in polish, and later sent the translated version to Brown. For Brown, the lines that stuck out the most are never forgive, never forget. His views were to keep the decision to the lord, I agree with his evaluation on this particular type of forgiveness but I don’t necessarily agree.

The third response I read, was by Eugene Fisher. In this, he talks not only about forgiveness, but from a different side of things. Fisher is involved with Catholic-Jewish Relations for the National Conference of Catholic Bishops, and discusses the Catholic view point on Jewish forgiveness of the holocaust. He believes that Jews should grant forgiveness and seems to share the consensus of the other authors profiled, believing that forgiving does not by any stretch of the imagination mean forgetting. However, Fisher raised another point that sparked my interest. He mentioned the view of who is the Catholic church to demand forgiveness from Jews. Catholics weren’t tormented, didn’t have their belief system shaken to its very core, and most of all Catholics did not have half if not more of they’re family trees or communities exterminated, so why do they get to have a say? Fisher  himself is still on the fence, but the impression I get is he feels it is not his question to answer because the shoes don’t fit.

 

 

how you might respond to the situation. What from your beliefs influenced this response?

Respond to the question in The Sunflower: Part 1 on how you might respond to the situation. What from your beliefs influenced this response?

Then describe a “friend’s” situation that warranted forgiveness and describe its resolution or lack of resolution.

 

What would I do in this situation? I honestly have no idea. Could I forgive the atrocities committed against my friends and my family? Quite honestly, I do not believe I could forgive. Through family trees on my father’s side, we traced back to a relative of my great, great uncle, who’s family lived in Poland around the time of World War Two, and they were captured and killed. I could never imagine living without my family or the beautiful gift of having a child. All these people who misses out on so many experiences because of one group of political party decided Judaism was to blame for their problems. It is truly unthinkable.

 

I believe the human life is a sacred beautiful thing. In order to revoke some one’s right to live, they had better deserved it whether they committed a heinous crime or robbed people blind of their life savings, there must always be a reason. Without proper justification, you as a person are breaking one of the first commandments. I could not forgive the man or men who killed my family and friends as if they were animals. It’s appalling to even think about. 6 million people, mostly women and children were slaughtered. Those kids will never grow up, never fall in love, never have kids of their own, and will most likely be forgotten. Despite my faith’s policy of complete forgiveness, I would have to respectively decline from accepting his apology. I do not believe you atone for everything you do and humiliating, torturing, and murder millions of innocent people is just one of instances in which my morality as a human being will not allow me to forgive.

 

Conflict resolution is an interesting thing because it doesn’t always mean an apology or taking responsibility for what you have done. It’s just never that easy. With different people exist different feelings and personalities, each reacting different to problems and conflict at hand. The hardest situation I have had to deal with so far is rejection. From not being able to afford a college, to breaking up with someone you love, the cycle seems to never end.

 

This brings me to my story on conflict resolution. By far, as I previously mentioned rejection is tough. For me it was the loss of a relationship that knocked me on my ass. Senior year I had been in a yearlong relationship that had started the fall before. Come this fall, things had changed. My college process had kicked up to full gear, I Was playing baseball 20 hours a week between games, lessons, workouts, and practice, and was not mention a full time student in my most important term of my high school career. The problem was, so was the girl I was in the relationship with. She was juggling just about the same amount of responsibilities I was, maybe even a few more. After a month of this things spiraled out of control and we broke up. I had no idea what to do. I felt the quicksand effect, the one where no matter what you seem to do things just get worse and worse, as if you were stuck in quicksand.  Eventually I got up and dusted myself off. Baseball helped me through my darkest days along with my group of best friends. I still talk to the girl on a somewhat regular basis, but now we’re ok and past the grief and jealously stages and we’ve both moved on.

 

Webliography

1. © 2011 Cable News Network. Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. All Rights Reserved.; CNN Politics; http://www.cnn.com/POLITICS/

• To keep up with current events and crises happening in the world, I usually turn to CNN. It’s a reliable fairly middle of the road news corporation that is always on their game.

2. © 2011 The New York Times Company; http://www.nytimes.com/pages/technology/index.html; Business Day Technology

• I’ve grown up with the NY Times. For as long as I can remember, every Saturday and Sunday mornings began with the newspaper. Now, at school they have the daily papers free in the lobby. It’s not only an outstanding publication but an outstanding website as well.

3. © 2011 The New York Times Company; http://www.nytimes.com/pages/world/index.html; International News

• Through this section in the paper and online articles I was able to follow the most recent crises in Egypt, almost in real time. The New York Times is a great publication, with outstanding writers.

4. Steven D. Levitt is an economist & Stephen J. Dubner is a writer, together they wrote Freakonomics; http://www.freakonomicsmedia.com/index.php?scp=1-spot&sq=freakonomics&st=cse; Freakonomics: The Hidden Side of Everything

• Freakonomics is my favorite book series of all time. From the odd way Dr. Levitt and Steven Dubner look at everyday issues. My personal favorite is why suicide bombers should buy life insurance. So, of course as soon as I found out about the blog I was hooked.

5. © 2011 The New York Times Company; http://www.nytimes.com/pages/politics/index.html; Politics

• Being a political science major, I have to stay current using several different news outlets to get every side of an issue. When in a pinch however I rely on the New York Time’s Politics section.

6. © 2003-2011 Top-Law-Schools.com All rights reserved; http://www.top-law-schools.com/rankings.html; Top 2010 Law School Rankings

• Since eighth grade, I’ve known exactly what I’ve wanted to do with my life. So as for schooling, my next 8 years are planned out. As for Law school I have to find a place that is the best fit for what I plan to study, where I want to practice, and where the job market is the strongest. To do this I have to start searching and visiting schools now that might be that best fit.

7. © 2003-2011 Top-Law-Schools.com All rights reserved; http://www.top-law-schools.com/rankings.html; http://www.top-law-schools.com/yale-law-school.html; The Yale Law School

• Last semester with Pre-Law Society, I took a trip to Yale’s law school. I live 10 miles away in Branford, and had never been. As soon as I set my eyes on the school, I loved it. The most intimidating/comforting environment I’ve ever been in.

8. © 2003-2011 Top-Law-Schools.com All rights reserved; http://www.top-law-schools.com/rankings.html; http://www.top-law-schools.com/fordham-law-school.html; Fordham University School of Law

• Fordham is another serious consideration for me. The law school is exceptional and the campus is located in an area in the Bronx which I’m familiar with. This is an amazing school, with many famous alumni, and high standards.

9. © 2003-2011 Top-Law-Schools.com All rights reserved; http://www.top-law-schools.com/rankings.html; http://www.top-law-schools.com/northeastern-law.html; Northeastern University School of Law

• Northeastern is my first choice as to Law Schools so far. The campus is amazing and right in the heart of Boston. The curriculum in top notch, and prepares you well for the Massachusetts BAR exam along with the competitive job market.

10. © 2003-2011 Top-Law-Schools.com All rights reserved; http://www.top-law-schools.com/rankings.html; http://www.top-law-schools.com/connecticut-school-of-law.html; The University of Connecticut School of Law

• UConn has a very competitive law school. Because of living in state the tuition is a fraction of most other places. This could be a mitigating factor if push comes to shove.

11. © Copyright 5756-5768 (1995-2008), Tracey R Rich; http://www.jewfaq.org/index.htm; Judaism 101

• This website is great for looking up quick facts about Judaism. For more in depth things I’ll refer to my prayer books, and a website I cited a few down the list. Solid website for the student looking to grasp general concepts of the religion.

12. © 2004-2011 Religion Facts. All rights reserved. Published: 3/17/04
updated: 9/5/08; http://www.religionfacts.com/judaism/; Judaism

• This website is deeper look beyond Judaism 101 but still not the best.  However, still a great resource to have.

13. Charles Hedrick; University Director of Instructional and Research Technology and Chief Technology Officer at Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey; What is Christianity?

• I learned a boatload from this particular website. The Rutgers ministry program does a great job of conveying their research findings to it’s readers.

14. Created by: Sara Wenner, 2001, Written by: Melissa Lorentz, 2008; http://www.mnsu.edu/emuseum/cultural/religion/hinduism/beliefs.html; Basic Beliefs of Hinduism

• Great resource to have for Hinduism. What’s good about this site is that because it’s from a University, you know the information is reliable.

15. Rainn Wilson, Devon Gundry, Golriz Lucina, Shabnam Mogharabi; http://www.soulpancake.com/; SoulPancake: Chew on Life’s Big Questions

• Soul Pancake is unique. This website is sort of like a divine facebook. On Soul Pancake, you ask general questions about faith or anything involving deep though, and the soul pancake community answers your question and delivers diverse views on everything because you get people from every background. This website, was created by Rain Wilson, of the hit TV show “The Office.”

16. Jeffrey K. Hadden & Douglas E. Cowan, “Religion and the Social Order, Volume 8: Religion on the Internet: Research prospects and promises,” JAI/Elsevier Science, (2000); http://www.religioustolerance.org/jainism.htm; Jainism

• This was one of the few quality resources I could find regarding Jainism. Very knowledgable, and extremely helpful.

17. Wilhelm, J. (1911). New York: Robert Appleton Company. Retrieved March 2, 2011 from New Advent: http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/12495a.htm; Protestantism. In The Catholic Encyclopedia

• I’m not very versed on the difference between Christians and protestants, but this website helped fill in the gap.

18. Hambrick-Stowe, Charles. Charles G. Finney and the Spirit of American Evangelicalism (Eerdmans, 1996); http://isae.wheaton.edu/defining-evangelicalism/; Defining Evangelicalism

• All I know about Evangelicals is they preach and claim ownership to Pastor Rick Warren. This website helped clear up a few confusing details.

19. © Copyright 1993-2011 Andrew Tannenbaum, Page created: November 1993
Last update: 27 February 2011; http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Judaism/Orthodox.html; Orthodox Judaism

• This website was amazing. It’s a library of congress of Judaism. It’s just mind blowing.

20. Copyright © 2008 Union for Reform Judaism; What is Reform Judaism? http://www.reformjudaism.org/whatisrj.shtml

• This website was much more knowledgable than most. From this website you can very easily learn about Reform Judaism.

 

 

Belief-O-Matic

After taking the belief-o-matic survey online, my results were surprising. Apparently, I have wasting my time in the synagogue and should have moved to the land of the Quakers. Yup, after taking the survey my number one result was as a member of the Liberal Quakers at 100%, followed by Unitarian Universalism at 97%. Next, was Orthodox Quaker at 85%, followed by the unique Sikhism at 85%. Finally, is the religion I grew up on, Reform Judaism 84%. Definitely, this survey delivered results that personally I was expecting. This survey is amazing.

Hello world!

What is the purest form of art?

I’m sure this question is posed between artists and artsy douches in coffee shops all the time, but what is truly the purest form of art?

Is it the ridiculously priced paintings hanging in museums or the palatial sculptures of random people who were stalked by the artist? Well, in the views of this guy, its neither. It’s not a photograph or a love letter. The purest form of art by the very nature of it, guarantees pure anonymity, and lets you express your creativity without limits…

See the rest of the post on my blog!