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 "denominations"?

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Salvia




Posts : 166
Join date : 2012-12-29
Age : 36
Location : Wales, UK

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PostSubject: "denominations"?   "denominations"? EmptySun Dec 30, 2012 4:22 pm

Hi everybody,
This must really be your typical n00b question, but I as wondering whether anyone could clear up this 'denomination' thing. See, where I come from, we basically have two kind of jews. German and Portuguese ones. The Germans, as far as I know, tend to be on the orthodox/very orthodox side, and the Portuguese come in all flavours. My ex comes from a secular P. jew family, and one of my best friends from a very strict one, although she's actually Moroccan (but that is the same ritual, I've been told, they are different branches of Sephardic Jews..). I also had some classmates at school that came from P. Jewish families, and they were religious though not rigidly so. But...as far as I know there are no different synagogues for orthodox, semi-orthodox and 'cool' jews were I come from. Only the very VERY orthodox G. jews have their own organisations...

So how does this work?

Sorry for sillyness!!
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Sarit

Sarit


Posts : 128
Join date : 2012-03-14
Age : 41
Location : Belgrade, Serbia

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PostSubject: Re: "denominations"?   "denominations"? EmptySun Dec 30, 2012 4:50 pm

Hey, you're not silly! Very Happy

Where I come from, we don't have denominations as such. We have a small Jewish community here (approx. 1000 members, of which about 400 are in my city) and only one rabbi, which is MO (Modern Orthodox). There's also a Chassidic branch here in Belgrade and a Chassidic rabbi, but as far as I know, his connections to Jewish community here are not so tight.

Most of Jewish people here are secular and even don't go regularly to synagogue. For many of them being Jewish is mostly cultural, and not religious heritage, so they socialize with each other on that basis, not being very observant, but you cannot generalize, of course. There are different people here.

However, the synagogue is active, we have many activities (for preschool children, the social club for young people, the choir section, traditional dance section etc), and the community is active in general.

Before the Holocaust the Jewish community here was a lot bigger, and then we had separate Ashkenazi and Sephardic community (now it's mixed). After the World War II the remaining Jews were recovering of a great trauma trying not to pass it to their children, so many young people have started discovering their roots practically recently.

In the USA, as far as I know, there are Orthodox, Conservative and Reform Judaism, and also Reconstructionist (and maybe some other denominations). In Europe there is also Liberal/Progressive Judaism, but I'll let someone from these countries to explain. :)


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